Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Conforming to the current fashion; stylish: chic clothes; a chic boutique.
- adj. Adopting or setting current fashions and styles; sophisticated: chic, well-dressed young executives. See Synonyms at fashionable.
- n. The quality or state of being stylish; fashionableness.
- n. Sophistication in dress and manner; elegance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Stylish; effective in style.
- n. In the fine arts, the faculty of producing effective works with rapidity and ease; cleverness and skill combined with great facility.
- n. Parisian elegance and fashionableness combined with originality: said of fashion in dress.
- n. Adroitness; cunning; knowingness.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. colloq. Original and in good taste or form; stylish; in current fashion, fashionable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. elegant and stylish
- n. elegance by virtue of being fashionable
Etymologies
- 1855, from French chic, from German schick ("elegance, tact, style, skill"), from Middle High German schicken ("to outfit oneself, fit in, arrange appropriately"), causative of Middle High German geschehen, geschēn ("to happen, rush") from Old High German giskehan ("to happen") from Proto-Germanic *skehanan (“to run, move quickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *skek- (“to run, jump, spring”). Akin to Old English scēon ("to happen"), Dutch schielijk ("hasty"). (Wiktionary)
- French, probably from German Schick, skill, fitness, elegance, from Middle High German (sich) schicken, to outfit (oneself), fit in. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We've never had the word 'chic' applied to the White House until this interesting tour.”
“It all adds up to what I call chic nihilism - a belief that living according to the fashionable ethos of the age is more important than sticking with something that, at times, may feel less than rewarding.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Nowaday, geek chic is in, and I think the etiquette of that look will stick around.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Marissa’s Review Forum
“Also known as heroin chic, the skinny models of these days look emaciated because they are.”
The Fashion Industry: A New Type of Monster « Colleen Anderson
“Elfin chic might have been all the rage in Middle Earth, but hands up who actually wore giant ears and black hair extensions out on the town?”
“We sure dodged a bullet with that Palin chic, huh?”
“Heroine-chic is a term that describes a certian fashion/lifestyle.”
“True story: years ago (when it was still, you know … relevant) one of our marketing drones put out a memo referencing heroin chic, and his inbred admin sent it out to the world with it spelled heroine sheik.”
“Until this headline, I figured that the whole issue of covering and adorning ourselves had arrived at Katie-bar-the-door, no holds barred, be whatever you want to be, everything from heroin chic to unmade bed.”
jean casey | the death of fashion? « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground
“Urban chic is only the latest incarnation of a discipline that has been changing form for thousands of years.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chic’.
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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Palabras de 3 letras en Español.
¡La única lista que también incluye flexiónes verbales y pluralizaciones! Ayúdame a encontrarlas todas.
(Por ser una lista para Scrabble, los dígrafos ll, rr, y ch valen como una sola ...aba, aca, aga, ahe, ahi, aho, aja, aje, aji, ajo, ala, ale and 427 more...
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words to describe everything GOLD
emotions, reactions, senses, how do we feel when we wear gold, generational, memories,
Sensual, illuminated, history, intricate, classic, bright, luxe, sparkly, splashy, metallic, perfection, gilt and 30 more...
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THE WAY WE DRESS
These Vocabulary will learn adjectives that describe fashion choices and personal style in clothes.
chic, classic, conservative, elegant, fashionable, flashy, formal, frumpy, functional, funky, quirky, retro and 20 more...
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Loan words from French
gite, coq au vin, dernier cri, clique, hors d'œuvre, touché, naïve, coquette, bourgeois, contretemps, flâneur, film noir and 63 more...
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Style
Words that pertain to style in some way, shape or form.
chichi, uber, food stylist, extraordinaire, la-ti-da, fabulous, chic, selective, adorn, decked out, titivate
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Sophaloaf's list
Favorites!
belle, starfish, photography, buddha, dinosaur, floccinaucinihili..., hypoallergenic, sailor, gorgeous, adhesive, imagination, artichokes and 55 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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Mr. Pronunciation's Bad Day
Mr. Pronunciation is an upstanding and reliable sort of dude. He's like the Clark Kent of the pronunciation world. Sometimes, though, he botches up a pronunciation and, you know, he's in a hurry an...
colonel, treacle, cruel, laissez faire, poo, stupid, sashay, concrete, birthmark, chic, draught, gaur and 11 more...
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English with Tongue
French words and phrases used by English speakers.
objet d'art, nom de plume, petite, bon voyage, avant-garde, faux pas, faux, touché, répondez, s'il vo..., rouge, papier mâché, joie de vivre and 85 more...
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window dressing
chemise, gossamer, tweed, pleat, fold, cuff, button, shirttails, ascot, cummerbund, velvet, silk and 104 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
BuffaloBen's Words
sycamore, wipfel, rohlingsspindel, gorgeous, flamboyance, anschmiegen, pengpeng, zuckerhut, revolver, troubleshooter, breeze, dandy and 228 more...
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gcherches's Words
serendipity, roadrunner, inner child, coagulant, esquire, vicissitude, idiot savant, mitigation, affirmation, affirmative, diatribe, affirmative action and 185 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for chic.
rolig The standard pronunciation (modeled on the original French) is "sheek". When someone says "chick" to mean "stylish", I assume the person has never connected the spelling c-h-i-c with the word they have always heard pronounced as "sheek". Sep 22, 2008
cricket They all sound too close to a certain unnamed noun which is a synonym to "poo." Mar 2, 2008
uselessness I prefer sheikh. Sep 28, 2007
kewpid Do you prefer "shick" or "chick"? I like the former, it sounds more sophistimicated. Sep 28, 2007