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# swish

«swish» in Mova's school dictionary: **To move quickly through the air with a soft hissing…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (swish, swishes, swished, swishing); noun (a swish, swishes)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To move quickly through the air with a soft hissing sound: "The horse swished its tail." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#m1)

2) A swish is the sound or the movement itself. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#m2)

3) In basketball, a shot that goes straight through the net without touching the rim. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#m3)

4) To swish someone is to hit them with a thin stick or cane. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In stories, swish is a sound word: a cape swishes, a sword swishes through the air. In everyday life you may swish water round your mouth after brushing teeth. Phrases: swish its tail, with a swish.

### examples

- The cow swished its tail to keep the flies away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#x1)
- Her long skirt swished as she danced. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#x2)
- The sword went swish through the air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#x3)
- Swish the water around your mouth and spit it out. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#x4)
- He shot the ball and it was a perfect swish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#x5)
- The curtains swished open. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#x6)
- They pursued him with a savagery which he could not distinguish from hatred, and they swished him well whenever they got the chance. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/#x7)

### note

Regular verb: swish, swished; third person "swishes". It is an onomatopoeia: the word sounds like the noise it names, like "whoosh" and "swoosh". Good for adding sound to stories.

### In the corpora

- [A tail that flicks, swishes or thumps usually means the cat is annoyed.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/23-understanding-cats/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «swish» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/swish/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.