Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sibilant sound.
  • noun A swift movement or flow; a rush or spurt.
  • intransitive verb To make a soft sibilant sound.
  • intransitive verb To move or flow swiftly, often when making such a sound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A breathy sound like that of an object passing at high speed.
  • verb To make a breathy sound like a whoosh.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb gush or squirt out
  • noun the noise produced by the sudden rush of a fluid (a gas or liquid)
  • verb move with a whooshing sound
  • verb move with a sibilant sound

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Imitative.]

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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.

    Susan Eleuterio: Being Barack Obama 2008

  • 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.

    Michael Carmichael: Obama's Pivot 2008

  • 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.

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • 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.

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • 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.

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • 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.

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • 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.

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • 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.

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • Foods that go "whoosh" don't leave us with a sense of being well fed.

    From 'The End of Overeating' 2009

  • There was a wonderful 'whoosh' every time one of the blades came round.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

Comments

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  • ...drank a large Campari

    with two ice chunks and a whoosh of soda...

    - Peter Reading, Luncheon, from The Prison Cell and Barrel Mystery, 1976

    June 23, 2008

  • Neat quote, yarb.

    May 15, 2009