shoosh

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʊʃ

Interjection

shoosh

1. A whooshing noise.
   • 2005 May 2 [1913], Harry Leon Wilson, “Chapter XI”, in Bunker Bean‎^[1], Garden City, New York: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE, via Gutenberg:

     Plain enough," said the man who had been studying his foot on the chair. "Some one pulled the plug."
     "And away she goes--shoosh!" said the big man dramatically.
     "Kennedy & Balch buying right and left. Open at a hundred and twenty-five to-morrow, sure!" said the quiet one quietly.
     Placed an order yesterday for four hundred shares and got 'em," said another, not so quietly. "And to-day they're bidding Federal Express up to the ceiling."

   • 2008 April 15 [1916], Boyd Cable, “"The Cost"”, in Between The Lines‎^[2], Toronto: Mcclelland, Goodchild, & Stewart, via Gutenberg:

     There came suddenly out of the surrounding din of battle four quick car-filling rushes of sound--sh-sh-sh-shoosh--ba-ba-ba-bang!

   • 1995, Felix Roziner, translated by Michael Henry Heim, A Certain Finkelmeyer‎^[3], Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, page 89:

     Suddenly Manakin twisted his torso, flung up his arms, and went, 'Shoosh!' It was so fine an imitation of a gunshot that everyone jumped.

2. A rhythmic whispering noise.
   • 1988, Camille S. Williams, “Abortion and Equality Under the Law”, in Neil L. York, editor, Toward A More Perfect Union: Six Essays on the Constitution‎^[4], State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 151:

     Many women hear the shoosh—shoosh of the unborn heart at the first prenatal exam and see the face of their moving, growing unborn child in an ultrasound image early in the second trimester.

3. The sound of skis scraping on snow.
   • 2002, John C. Myre, Live Safely in a Dangerous World, Safety Times, →ISBN, page 182:

     Shoosh! Shoosh! Ouch! The tragic deaths of Sonny Bono and Michael Kennedy remind us that sliding down the side of a mountain, like any recreational activity, must be approached with safety in mind.

Noun

shoosh (plural shooshes)

1. A whooshing noise.
2. A rhythmic whispering noise.
   • 2012 [1990], Scott Russell Sanders, “"After the Flood"”, in Earth Works: Selected Essays‎^[5], Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 97:

     As I drove through the vacant lot, the only sounds were the crunch of gravel beneath my tires and the yawp of blue jays overhead and the shoosh of wind through the pines.

   • 2008 [1962], Sylvia Plath, “Ocean 1212-W”, in Johnny Panic and the bible of dreams : short stories, prose, and diary excerpts‎^[6], New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, →ISBN, page 20:

     I'm a small sea captain, tasting the day's weather—battering rams at the seawall, a spray of grapeshot on my mother's brave geraniums, or the lulling shoosh-shoosh of a full mirrory pool

3. The sound of skis scraping on snow.
   • 1970, Pat Snook, “Ski Touring”, in National Wildlife, volume 8, numbers Dec 1969–Jan 1970, page 23:

     The only sound a skier brings to the woods is the occasional creak of a rucksack strap and the faint “shoosh” of skis gliding over the crisp snow.

   • 2018, Dani Collins, On the Edge, Tule, →ISBN, page 34:

     He visually picked his way through the alpine, hearing the shoosh of his skis in the otherwise silent world.

Verb

shoosh (third-person singular simple present shooshes, present participle shooshing, simple past and past participle shooshed)

1. To make or cause to make a shoosh; to move with a shoosh.
   • 1934, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 11, in Right Ho, Jeeves‎^[7]:

     The makings were neatly laid out on a side-table, and to pour into a glass an inch or so of the raw spirit and shoosh some soda-water on top of it was with me the work of a moment.

   • 1990, Leath Tonino, “Seven Lengths of Vermont”, in The Animal One Thousand Miles Long: Seven Lengths of Vermont and Other Adventures‎^[8], Trinity University Press, →ISBN, page 167:

     She shooshed from the glades and stopped in front of me.

2. To shush, to hush, to be quiet; to tell someone to be quiet.
   • 1916, George Barr McCutcheon, From the Housetops‎^[9], Chicago, New York: M. A. Donohue, page 110:

     "Sh!"
     "I won't shoosh!["]

   • 2012, Fred Arroyo, “A Case of Consolation”, in Western Avenue and Other Fictions (Camino del Sol)‎^[10], Tucson: University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 8:

     She raised two fingers to Boogaloo's lips, lightly touched them, shooshed him quiet.

   • 2021, Breton Dukes, “What Sort of Man”, in What Sort of Man and other stories‎^[11], Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press, →ISBN:

     Actually, what she'd be telling him now was to get Ed home. Because he was really crying.
     'Shoosh Ed, shoosh little Eddie-boy.'

3. To ski, especially in a gentle downhill curve.
   • 1974 October, Skiing, volume 27, number 2, page 8:

     The lift capacity, ever growing to meet demand, already enables 10,000 skiers to be whisked to the "top of the world " every hour, so enthusiasts spend a lot more time shooshing than standing around.

   • 1980 September 29, Ray Kennedy, “Howard Head says 'I'm giving up the Thing World'”, in Sports Illustrated‎^[12], volume 53, number 14, pages 68–69:

     One crisp day in 1950, Head stood in the bowl of Tuckerman's Ravine in New Hampshire and watched instructor Clif Taylor come skimming over the lip of the headwall, do a fishtail on the fall line and sweep into a long, graceful curve, shooshing to a stop in front of the beaming inventor.

   • 1989 September, “Talk about fun! Canada: The world next door [advertisement]”, in Skiing‎^[13], volume 42, number 1, page 279:

     Teaching aside, a lot of the time it's my job to translate — ski lingo, that is. Like when people ask me what it is to 'shoosh'. And I'll explain it's carving turns down gentle slopes.

See also

• shush, whoosh, zhoosh