swizzle
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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to agitate (a beverage) with a swizzle stick.
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to gulp down; guzzle.
noun
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an unshaken cocktail
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an alcoholic drink containing gin or rum
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informal a swiz
verb
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(tr) to stir a swizzle stick in (a drink)
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informal to swindle; cheat
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of swizzle
First recorded in 1805–15; origin uncertain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The South Carolina license plate on the Honda stopped in front of me at a red light, and its silhouette of the state’s signature palm looking regrettably like a tarantula atop a swizzle stick.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
Also included are a champagne swizzle stick and a metal-mounted foliate cocktail stick holder.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2023
Elaine Markoutsas, a design writer and editor in Chicago, came across cookie tins full of matchbooks and swizzle sticks while clearing out her mom’s house.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
There were pastel-colored roses, a five-tier cake, customized swizzle sticks, what appeared to be a smoke machine, and two enormous moss bears the size of kodiaks.
From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2022
“I don't know why I carry that crazy gold swizzle stick around,” she said.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
She propped the flour bag on the boards, squeezing it gently between her short cherry-red nails, and asked if I had any questions, while I swizzled back-and-forth slowly.
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2020
Correia says the Swizzle Inn’s version is the original, but wherever it first swizzled into existence, the drink has taken on a life of its own.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2020
"Well, I'll be swizzled," said one of them, excitedly, "who made the bridge?"
From William Adolphus Turnpike by Banks, William
He swizzled the ice around in his glass, still holding it up to the light.
From Unwise Child by Garrett, Randall
The tall narrow pots had a hole in the lid for splash-free swizzling.
From BBC ● Dec. 10, 2023
In the meantime, I’ll be here with the rest of you, worrying and swizzling in place.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2020
I tell the bow-tied bartender, who nods and gets right to swizzling and shaking, his brows knit tight in concentration.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 2, 2016
At restaurants just inside the French border they could be seen swizzling champagne, ordering such delicacies as speckled trout, fresh asparagus, vieux cognac.
From Time Magazine Archive
And here you are swizzling, and rattling your coppers.
From Mary Anerley : a Yorkshire Tale by Blackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
