Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. showy, vulgar, arrogant.

1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘The “Look-See”’ in Naval Occasions 119: ‘Look – ’ he extended a small grubby forefinger, ‘’e’s a Viscount!’ ‘Garn,’ snapped his father, ‘that’s swank, that is. Viscounts don’ go sailorin’ – they stops ashore an’ grinds the faces of the poor.’.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘A Square Deal’ in Digger Smith 102: Do you think all the boys gone West / Wants great swank ’ead-stones on their chest?
1926		Breton & Bevir Adventures of Mrs. May 48: She’s all la-de-da and swank.
1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 226: But don’t get the idea, Nita, that it’s swank.

2. (also swanko) classy, sophisticated.

1922		Joyce Ulysses 307: Playing cards, hobnobbing with flash toffs with a swank glass in their eye, drinking fizz and he half smothered in writs and garnishee orders.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 68: She’s too swank for you.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 65: They find the club a swank, private affair.
1948		D. Dodge Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 22: The neighbourhood was much too swank for a shabby delivery truck.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 126: Her people [...] paid to put her in a swank, private nursing home.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 41: The really swank apartment that belonged to Tim Gray’s folks.
1960		G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 93: We went to one of the swankest hotels. [Ibid.] 134: Goosecroft, which I think is a swank girl’s school.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 87: I asked the fat broad tending bar where the swank joints were.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 37: I [...] casually mentioned that I had an interest in the gems that’d gone missing from the Peveril’s swank residence in Belgravia.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 7: The table was a swank walnut octagon.
1996		Dandy Book n.p.: Swanko de Posh restaurant.
1998		Source Nov. 141: Pras is chillin’ in his suite at the swank Mondrian Hotel.
1999		Guardian Guide 21–27 Aug. 4: Remake of 1968’s sexy, swankadelic heist movie, The Thomas Crown Affair.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 17/1: The threads were swank but not foppish.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hollywood Fuck Pad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 226: Exeter or Andover or some swank school with no jigs.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 288: He was dashing like they didn’t make them anymore, sophisticated swank and suave.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 19: [heading] liberace’s swank swish pad.