vbl. sb. [f. SWISH v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of moving with a swishing sound; a swishing movement or sound.
1860. Thackeray, Round. Papers, On being found out (1861), 126. What a butchery,… what an endless swishing of the rod!
1891. in Mrs. A. P. Martin, Cooee, 277. The swishing of the ducks’ wings.
1897. S. Crane, Third Violet, xxvi. 177. Hawker heard a step and the soft swishing of a woman’s dress.
2. A flogging; esp. so called at Eton. Also attrib.
1859. J. Payn, Foster Brothers, ix. 134. The Times controversy upon the great ‘swishing’ case at Winton.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., i. The birches birched him as soundly as if he had been a nobleman at Eton, and over the face too (which is not fair swishing, as all brave boys will agree).
1890. R. C. Lehmann, H. Fludyer, 47. Don’t let the Mater know about this; but nobody … thinks anything of a swishing.
1901. Athenæum, 27 July, 121/1. Had not our young friend enjoyed better luck than he deserved, his visits to the ‘swishing-room’ would have been even more frequent.
