swank adj.
1. showy, vulgar, arrogant.
![]() | 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.’. | ‘The “Look-See”’ in|
![]() | Digger Smith 102: Do you think all the boys gone West / Wants great swank ’ead-stones on their chest? | ‘A Square Deal’ in|
![]() | Adventures of Mrs. May 48: She’s all la-de-da and swank. | |
![]() | Hollywood Girl 226: But don’t get the idea, Nita, that it’s swank. |
2. (also swanko) classy, sophisticated.
![]() | 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. | |
![]() | (con. 1900s–10s) 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 68: She’s too swank for you. | |
![]() | Big Con 65: They find the club a swank, private affair. | |
![]() | Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 22: The neighbourhood was much too swank for a shabby delivery truck. | |
![]() | Viper 126: Her people [...] paid to put her in a swank, private nursing home. | |
![]() | On The Road (1972) 41: The really swank apartment that belonged to Tim Gray’s folks. | |
![]() | 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. | |
![]() | Pimp 87: I asked the fat broad tending bar where the swank joints were. | |
![]() | 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. | |
![]() | Muscle for the Wing 7: The table was a swank walnut octagon. | |
![]() | Dandy Book n.p.: Swanko de Posh restaurant. | |
![]() | Source Nov. 141: Pras is chillin’ in his suite at the swank Mondrian Hotel. | |
![]() | Guardian Guide 21–27 Aug. 4: Remake of 1968’s sexy, swankadelic heist movie, The Thomas Crown Affair. | |
![]() | (con. 1960s-70s) Top Fellas 17/1: The threads were swank but not foppish. | |
![]() | Destination: Morgue! (2004) 226: Exeter or Andover or some swank school with no jigs. | ‘Hollywood Fuck Pad’ in|
![]() | Last Kind Words 288: He was dashing like they didn’t make them anymore, sophisticated swank and suave. | |
![]() | Widespread Panic 19: [heading] liberace’s swank swish pad. |