Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. arrogant, showing-off behaviour.

1854		A.E. Baker Northamptonshire Gloss. n.p.: Swank, an ostentatious air, an affectation of stateliness in the walk. ‘What a swank he cuts!’ [OED].
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 14: Giving mugs and other barmy sots the push [...] when their swank got a bit too thick.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Great Expectations’, Sporting Times 1 Oct. 1/3: All his boasts of wealth should prove to be tall talk and ‘swank’.
1911		Brisbane Courier 19 July 5/5: There is no swank about him.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘The Push’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 39: We’ve slung the swank fer good an’ all; it don’t fit in our plan; / To skite uv birth an’ boodle is a crime.
1917		A. Brazil Madcap of the School 22: ‘I’ve come to a conclusion. It’s not shyness—it’s swank!’.
c.1918		B. Bennett ‘Doctor Goosegrease’ in Billy Bennett’s Third Budget 15: All your doctors are saps — all excepting me, p’raps, / And I speak without swank or bravado.
1922		Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert 87: A sort of sinful, overbearing swank seemed to exude from his very pores.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 134: Good-lookin’ feller, Tommy, an’ got a bit o’ ruddy swank, yer know.
1937		E. Garnett Family from One End Street 73: What did you do it for – swank, or do you belong to a gang?
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 252: Braceford’s superior college airs which Honest John termed ‘swank’, made him boil.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 169: swank [...] is very generally regarded as typical school slang.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 108: John and Mary disliked each other [...] because they were both white and resented the swank of whiteness.
1959		K. Amis letter 30 July in Leader (2000) 560: There’s less swank about high living – and less to swank about.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 184: Bags of swank.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 69: Always pluming himself and riding the high horse, chockful of swank and pomposity.
1973		B.S. Johnson All Bull 151: After four weeks we were swinging along to the strains of ‘My Boy Willie’ exhibiting bags of swank.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 112: It’s a goddam jungle out there in this land of glitter and swank.
1999		K. Jackson Invisible Forms 80: [T]he epigraph [. . .] will sometimes be little more than a display of raw swank.
2011		Sun. World (SA) 24 June 🌐 ‘Swag ’n swank’ The event boasted everything sexy and stylish.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 268: Mein Opa was among the greatest men of his age. This not just family swank.

2. insincere flattery.

1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 104: I [...] calls him a rare toff an’ a lot of old swank of that kind.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: swank. [...] blatherskite.

3. an aristocrat, a member of the upper classes.

1925		S. O’Casey Juno and the Paycock Act III: That’s th’ father of Mary Boyle that had th’ kid be th’ swank she used to go with.
c.1939		B. Bennett ‘Trumpeter’ in Billy Bennett’s Third Budget 34: But she mixed with the swanks — she rose from the ranks — / And now she’s an officer’s mess.
1948		P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 208: God, these swanks drink the devil’s amount of tay.
1966		G. Fletcher Down Among the Meths Men 82: Terrific, it was [...] the effin’ swanks never knew wot they was gettin’.
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 80: There were no washing powders, Rinso and Persil were for the swank.

4. (US black) stolen goods.

1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 swank n 1. stolen goods. Notes: old organized crime term, used in Goodfellas. Origin: first used in the 1950’s or earlier.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 swank Definition: cheap products, bootleg stuff Example: That nappy ol’ bitch opened his trunk an had some straight up swank on that shit.

5. see swanker n.