whooshes

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of whoosh.

   The rocket whooshes into the sky with a deafening roar.

   Wind whooshes down the canyon every afternoon as the air cools.

   Note

   The -es ending follows the -sh of the stem, as in rushes and washes. The verb is usually intransitive (the wind whooshes past), but it can take an object when it means sending something along fast: she whooshes the papers off the desk. In figurative use, a point or a joke whooshes by someone who misses it entirely.

   She whooshes the papers off the desk with one sweep of her arm.

   Every subtle joke whooshes right past him.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of whoosh.

   The sword made two sharp whooshes as she swung it through the air.

   A series of whooshes signaled each train passing through the tunnel.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here: it is the plural noun and also the present-tense verb. As a noun it usually counts separate rushing sounds, such as two whooshes of a blade or a run of whooshes as trains pass. In Multicultural London English slang, a whoosh can also be a gun or a fatal shooting. In that setting, whooshes means something far darker than moving air.

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