Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Swash |
SwashNoun1. The movement or sound of water; "the swash of waves on the beach". Verb1. Make violent, noisy movements. 2. Dash a liquid upon or against; "The mother splashed the baby's face with water". 3. Show off. 4. Act in an arrogant, overly self-assured, or conceited manner. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "swash" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1840. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | A decorative form of a letter, usually a capital, that may have a leading or trailing stroke, or flourish, that fits above or below the characters beside it. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: SwashSynonyms: blow (v), bluster (v), boast (v), brag (v), gas (v), gasconade (v), plash (v), shoot a line (v), spatter (v), splash (v), splatter (v), splosh (v), swagger (v), tout (v), vaunt (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
River | Verb: flow, run; meander; gush, pour, spout, roll, jet, well, issue; drop, drip, dribble, plash, spirtle, trill, trickle, distill, percolate; stream, overflow, inundate, deluge, flow over, splash, swash; guggle, murmur, babble, bubble, purl, gurgle, sputter, spurt, spray, regurgitate; ooze, flow out. (egress). |
Body of water, torrent, rapids, flush, flood, swash; spring tide, high tide, full tide; bore, tidal bore, eagre, hygre; fresh, freshet; indraught, reflux, undercurrent, eddy, vortex, gurge, whirlpool, Maelstrom, regurgitation, overflow; confluence, corrivation. | |
Water | Add water, water, wet; moisten; dilute, dip, immerse; merge; immerge, submerge; plunge, souse, duck, drown; soak, steep, macerate, pickle, wash, sprinkle, lave, bathe, affuse, splash, swash, douse, drench; dabble, slop, slobber, irrigate, inundate, deluge; syringe, inject, gargle. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Swash |
| English words defined with "swash": Swashed, Swashing, Swashway, Swashy. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "swash": longshore drift. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Enter Errol Flynn here, whose conscience will not allow him to either swash or buckle her, but since hubby is now worm food, I'm guessing all bets are off, mmmmhmmmm (Scrubs; writing credit: Gabrielle Allan; Janae Bakken) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Swash Buckled (1962) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | ![]() | Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve. Swash zone at Cabretta(?). Looking south. Georgia's coastline is composed of wide, slowly sloping beaches. Wave action is minimal compared to other areas of the East Coast. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John Quincy Adams | 1825-1829 | On the survey of the Swash, in Pamlico Sound, and that of Cape Fear, below the town of Wilmington, in North Carolina. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Swash" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 95.24% of the time. "Swash" is used about 21 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 95.24% | 20 | 78,262 |
| Noun (proper) | 4.76% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 21 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "swash": swash plate. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "swash": swash-buckler, swash-buckling, swash-lettered. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
plate swash | 11 |
swash | 4 |
bucklers swash | 3 |
book man swash | 2 |
bickham swash | 2 |
compressor plate swash | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "swash"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | llokoçit (plash, squelcher, stir), llokoçis (plash, squelcher, stir). (various references) | |
Arabic | هدير الأمواج (blusterer), تحرك بعنف, إندفاع الماء نحو الشاطئ, إختال (strut, swagger, swank). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | разбиващи се вълни, перча се (flounce, parade, prance, prank, rodomontade, roister, ruffle, splurge, swagger), пляс (flop, plop, slap, smack, zap), плискане (lap, plash, slosh, spatter, wash), плискам се (dabble, lap, plash, slop about, spatter, wash). (various references) | |
Chinese | 泼. (various references) | |
Czech | šumìt (bubble, effervesce, fizz, whisper), šplouchat (ripple, splash, splatter). (various references) | |
Danish | sirbogstav, pyntebogstav, ornamentalskrift. (various references) | |
Dutch | sierletter (cock up(initial)), krulletter. (various references) | |
Finnish | lotista (splash, squelch), lotina (splash, squelch). (various references) | |
French | paraphe, parafe, lettre ornée, clapotis, clapoter. (various references) | |
German | schwappen (slop, slosh, splash), Zierbuchstabe (cock up(initial)), planschen (paddle, slosh, splash). (various references) | |
Greek | σπάζω με θόρυβο, πλαταγώ (clap, flop), διακοσμημένος χαρακτήρας, διακοσμημένος αρχικός χαρακτήρας. (various references) | |
Hebrew | לשכשך (dabble, paddle, slosh, splash). (various references) | |
Hungarian | loccsant (splash, to splash). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pembual (braggart, loudmouth, swash-buckler). (various references) | |
Italian | svolazzo (flourish), sciabordare (lap). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ashsway.(various references) | |
Portuguese | marulhar (lap, plash, splash), letra ornamentada, letra ornada, fazer esparrinhar (splash), esparrinhar (plash, slosh, splash), esguichar (douche, flush, gush, jet, spirt, spout, spurt, spurt out), blasonar (vaunt), bater violentemente. (various references) | |
Russian | плескать плеск (splash), плескать (plash, splash, splashes, swashes). (various references) | |
Scottish | logar (sea swash). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pljuskati (patter, plash), šljiskati. (various references) | |
Spanish | letra floreada, chorro (blast, effluent, flow, gush, jet, puff, spirt, squirt, stream, trickle), chapoteo (moistening, plash, Popple, splash, sponging). (various references) | |
Swedish | slingtecken, utsirad bokstav. (various references) | |
Turkish | çalkantı, çalkalanmak (agitate, slosh, slush), çalkalanma (agitation, rinse, taking), çalkalamak (agitate, churn, rinse, rinse out, rouse, shake, shake up, slosh, swill, swill out, whip up), çalkalama (agitation, churning, rinse, rinsing, swill, wriggle). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | прибій (surf, wash), плескіт (squish), плескатися (dabble, plash, slop about, splatter), плескати (chuck, clap, splatter). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sóng vỗ, sự nạt nổ thét lác, sự huênh hoang khoác lác. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "swash": swashbuckle, swashbuckled, swashbuckler, swashbucklers, swashbuckles, swashbuckling, swashed, swasher, swashers, swashes, swashing. (additional references) | |
| |
"Swash" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: gwash, Sawalha, siwash, snash, swas, swush. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: shaws. | |
| Words within the letters "a-h-s-s-w" | |
-1 letter: haws, sash, saws, shaw, wash. | |
-2 letters: ash, ass, has, haw, saw, sha, was, wha. | |
-3 letters: ah, as, aw, ha, sh. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-h-s-s-w" | |
+1 letter: hawses, pshaws, schwas, shawls, shawms, swaths, washes. | |
+2 letters: bashaws, bushwas, cashaws, cashews, cushaws, hawsers, sawfish, shadows, swarths, swashed, swasher, swashes, swathes, washers, washups, waspish, whatsis. | |
+3 letters: bushwahs, cumshaws, fishways, goshawks, hacksaws, handsaws, rewashes, rikshaws, sahiwals, salchows, sawhorse, shallows, shipways, showcase, sightsaw, swainish, swampish, swashers, swashing, swatches, swathers, thawless, trishaws, warships, washdays, washiest, washings, washouts, washrags, washtubs, whatness, whatsits, whipsaws. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Speeches 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.