swankie

English

Alternative forms

• swanky

Etymology 1

Compare German schwank (“flexible, pliant”).

Noun

swankie (plural swankies)

1. (Scotland) An active and clever young fellow.
   • 1820 March, [Walter Scott], The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC:

     There is a young swankie here who shoots venison well.

Etymology 2

Noun

swankie (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Poor thin beer or any sloppy drink, even sweetened water and vinegar.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “swankie”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)