Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also swishy) fancy, elegant, ‘posh’; first-rate [? the SE swishing of a fashionable woman’s dress].

[1879		N&Q Ser. 5 XI 116: Provincialisms [...] in the neighbourhood of Lydford [...] Bain’t you swish? = How smart you are].
1899		in H.T. Sampson Ghost Walks (1988) 169: The man, is a black dapper little darkey with a swishy slide.
1917		Buffalo Enquirer (NY) 6 Mar. 6/3: If you want to be ‘swishy’ in your lingo use the new British slanmg word which is the swagger thing with army officers stattioned in France [...] ‘Swishy’ means tiptop, A1, the finest ever, and then some.
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 269: Really, under these conditions, the Peninsula, we felt, would be quite ‘swish’.
1939		J. Campbell Babe is Wise 315: Some day w’en I wanter look real swish [...] I’ll buy a dresslength, an’ you c’n make it up for me so I’ll look a knock-out.
1960		G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 28: Dates in Lauderdale were supposed to be fabulous; you wore heels and a swish dress.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 164: The shield pays for everything in here. It may look swish, but the guys who own it are no great bargains, so they figure it’s good business to let the fuzz ride for free.
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 70: I soon moved to a swish apartment on Upper Montagu Street.
1992		R.G. Barrett Davo’s Little Something 19: Quite out of place, sitting in a swish salon in his bloodstained working gear.
1999		Observer 18 July 23: A swish party in Chelsea.
2000		Indep. Rev. 26 Jan. 7: He is a guest rather than a host at the world’s swishest parties.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] ‘I’ve heard it’s very swish in there [i.e. a hotel]’.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘The Channel Ten guys are staying at some swish place in Bellington’.

2. effeminate, homosexual [swish n.].

1944		W. Winchell On Broadway 28 Oct. [synd. col.] The hand-to-hip crowd was going frantic [...] ‘I don’t get it,’ said Yergen, as he glanced around at some of New York’s Swish Set.
1946		J. Adams From Gags to Riches 304: One spot was noted for its boys-will-be-girls shows [...] Some of the better comedians [...] visited the ‘she-hes’ at their round-table sessions to get first-hand information on their swish characterizations.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 82: Cut that swish fart off the air.
1964		L. Hansberry Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window in Three Negro Plays (1969) II ii: He’s not swish.
1970		San Diego Sailor 29: Others were dressed pretty fancy and acted sort of swish.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 225: ‘Swish faggots,’ said one spokesman, ‘are the sort of people who give coksuckers a bad name.’.
1998		R. Scott Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 swish — 1) (adj) effeminate and flamboyant 2) (verb) to act or move effeminately or flamboyantly.
2000		J. Stevenson London Bridges (2001) 170: If he was any swishier, you could hang curtains off him.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘Lookin’ for this cove. He’s a bit swish but into the odd lurk’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 19: [heading] liberace’s swank swish pad.