Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sibilant sound: the whoosh of the high-speed elevator.
- n. A swift movement or flow; a rush or spurt.
- v. To make a soft sibilant sound.
- v. To move or flow swiftly with or as if with such a sound.
Wiktionary
- n. A breathy sound like that of an object passing at high speed.
- v. To make a breathy sound like a whoosh.
WordNet 3.0
- v. gush or squirt out
- n. the noise produced by the sudden rush of a fluid (a gas or liquid)
- v. move with a whooshing sound
- v. move with a sibilant sound
Etymologies
- Imitative. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Barbara went out to the parking lot and a lot more men in suits with earpieces came down into the lobby and then "whoosh" - a huddle came out of the elevator, jumped into a car and was gone.”
“Led by Rahm Emanuel, a stalwart Clintonian factotum and grandee of the now obsolete DLC, the exodus from Clinton's campaign recalled the whoosh of gas escaping from a hot air balloon over the Grand Canyon.”
“Among other segments, the boob-a-thon included Anna Nicole Smith pantomiming the various sizes of implants she has had using a "whoosh" - like noise and an all-bra fashion show with running commentary from a male audience member ( "Me like that one.”
“Foods that go "whoosh" don't leave us with a sense of being well fed.”
“There was a wonderful 'whoosh' every time one of the blades came round.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“Like the "whoosh" music sting that Buffy the Vampire Slayer had before every act break and which other shows have copied since then.”
“My tires made satisfying "whoosh" noises as I launched off each one, catching a little bit of blissful air before landing with a crunch back in the dirt.”
“Also, if you listen closely, you can hear a kind of "whoosh" from the cape right before they land on the car, which could have slowed them down significantly enough to save them.”
Toronto Review: Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno « FirstShowing.net
“We don't need this extraneous garbage any more than we need the "whoosh" sound between TV news items, or quick-cuts replacing dialogue in movies, but those are the trends.”
“The participants had to say "whoosh" when handing it to the right or left, while an imaginary throw across the circle required a "zap.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘whoosh’.
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Onomatopoetic
words (seemingly) formed in imitation of a natural sound
plash, guff, woof, splash, crash, pow, crack, bang, whoosh, whizz, whallop, fizz and 116 more...
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Sounds
words that describe sound
atchoo, atishoo, babble, bam, bay, beep, blast, blather, bleat, bleep, blip, bong and 242 more...
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onomatopoeias (1 syllable)
1 syllable words that mean what they sound like.
(dictionaried or un-dictionaried words | onomatopoeic in nature)
onomatopoeias (2 syllable) | onomatopoeias (3+ syllables)
gush, buzz, pop, woof, boo, bam, bang, bash, bump, clang, clap, click and 106 more...
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sound (loud)
words for loud sounds
( open list, descriptive, randomness )
also see:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopo...crash, thud, bump, thump, boom, smash, explode, roar, scream, screech, short, yell and 168 more...
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Words ending with sh
wash, zanyish, youngish, yokelish, yellowish, wormish, woosh, womanish, wolfish, wispish, wish, winish and 42 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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working list
overkill, premonition, discombobulation, golliwogs, guerilla, paraphernalia, banter, gambit, atonement, leeway, ingenuity, haberdashery and 164 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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Sounds like it
Onomatopoeia that's also an English word (not too much sound symbolism, like "ta" or "ting")
bang, clang, slam, clop, fizz, swish, whoosh, puff, blare, buzz, chatter, chirp and 16 more...
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Fun with sounds
In which words that represent sounds are listed.
splat, plop, plunk, kapow, swish, poof, boom, whomp, boop, whoosh, bonk
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Onomatopoeia
Words that imitate sounds.
bam, bamf, bang, boom, snikt, ping, plink, plonk, boing, whoosh, kaboom, crash and 68 more...
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W
wrinkle, waterfall, whistle, wildflower, wings, wisp, will o' the wisp, wish, whisper, willow, whiskey, winnow and 21 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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fast
whoosh, scurry, precocious, scamper, alacrity, skittish, suddenly, jiggle, skedaddle, flighty, impetuous
Tweets
Looking for tweets for whoosh.
bilby Neat quote, yarb. May 15, 2009
yarb ...drank a large Campari
with two ice chunks and a whoosh of soda...
- Peter Reading, Luncheon, from The Prison Cell and Barrel Mystery, 1976 Jun 23, 2008