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
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