Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Conforming to the current fashion; stylish.
- adjective Adopting or setting current fashions and styles; sophisticated: synonym: fashionable.
- noun The quality or state of being stylish; fashionableness.
- noun Sophistication in dress and manner; elegance.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Stylish; effective in style.
- noun In the fine arts, the faculty of producing effective works with rapidity and ease; cleverness and skill combined with great facility.
- noun Parisian elegance and fashionableness combined with originality: said of fashion in dress.
- noun Adroitness; cunning; knowingness.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective colloq. Original and in good taste or form; stylish; in current fashion, fashionable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
stylish ;elegant - noun Good form;
style .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective elegant and stylish
- noun elegance by virtue of being fashionable
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We've never had the word 'chic' applied to the White House until this interesting tour.
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It all adds up to what I call chic nihilism - a belief that living according to the fashionable ethos of the age is more important than sticking with something that, at times, may feel less than rewarding.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011
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We've never had the word 'chic' applied to the White House until this interesting tour.
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Nowaday, geek chic is in, and I think the etiquette of that look will stick around.
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Marissa’s Review Forum 2009
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Also known as heroin chic, the skinny models of these days look emaciated because they are.
The Fashion Industry: A New Type of Monster « Colleen Anderson 2009
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Elfin chic might have been all the rage in Middle Earth, but hands up who actually wore giant ears and black hair extensions out on the town?
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We sure dodged a bullet with that Palin chic, huh?
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Heroine-chic is a term that describes a certian fashion/lifestyle.
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True story: years ago (when it was still, you know … relevant) one of our marketing drones put out a memo referencing heroin chic, and his inbred admin sent it out to the world with it spelled heroine sheik.
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Until this headline, I figured that the whole issue of covering and adorning ourselves had arrived at Katie-bar-the-door, no holds barred, be whatever you want to be, everything from heroin chic to unmade bed.
jean casey | the death of fashion? « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2007
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Beyond hypocrisy, for years the common interpretation of Trump’s longstanding romance with 18th century gilded kitsch has been that, Trump, like other practitioners of so-called “Dictator Chic” (most of whom, like Saddam Hussein, have since been deposed) wishes to fashion himself in the style of the late Bourbon kings who ruled tyrannically and absolutely over their immiserated French populaces.
kewpid commented on the word chic
Do you prefer "shick" or "chick"? I like the former, it sounds more sophistimicated.
September 28, 2007
uselessness commented on the word chic
I prefer sheikh.
September 28, 2007
cricket commented on the word chic
They all sound too close to a certain unnamed noun which is a synonym to "poo."
March 2, 2008
rolig commented on the word chic
The standard pronunciation (modeled on the original French) is "sheek". When someone says "chick" to mean "stylish", I assume the person has never connected the spelling c-h-i-c with the word they have always heard pronounced as "sheek".
September 22, 2008