douche

Borrowed from French douche (“shower”), from Italian doccia (“shower”).

• IPA^(key): /duːʃ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːʃ

douche (plural douches)

1. A jet or current of water or vapour directed upon some part of the body to benefit it medicinally; in particular, such a jet directed at the vagina for irrigation.
   • 1892, Robert Ottiwell Gifford-Bennet, Buxton and its Medicinal Waters‎, London: John Heywood:

     Massage, or kneading of the whole body, is carried out in this bath after which a steam douche or a warm spray is turned upon the affected parts, according to the nature of the case.

   • 1898 Selma Lagerlöf (trans. Pauline Bancroft Flach), The Story of Gösta Berling, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, Part II, Chapter I, p. 249

     Earth, the great mother, begins to live. Romping like a child she rises from her bath in the spring floods, from her douche in the spring rain.

   • 1973, Jaroslav Hašek, chapter 4, in Cecil Parrott, transl., The Good Soldier Švejk, London: William Heinemann, page 32:

     In the bathroom, they immersed him in a tub of warm water, and then pulled him out and put him under a cold douche.

2. Something that produces the jet or current in the previous sense, such as a syringe.
3. (obsolete) A jet or spray of any liquid.
   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 183:

     A douche of spray blinded my brother for a moment. When his eyes were clear again, he saw the monster had passed and was rushing landward.

4. (slang, derogatory, vulgar) Ellipsis of douchebag (“objectionable person”).
   • 1991, “Startin' Up a Posse”, in Attack of the Killer B's, performed by Anthrax:

     You say our records are offensive, (You're a douche, you're a douche.)

   • 2002 November 27, Trey Parker, “The Biggest Douche in the Universe” (16:05), in South Park‎, season 6, episode 15, spoken by Stan:

     I am saying this to you, John Edward. You are a liar, you are a fake, and you are the biggest douche ever.

   • 2019, “Never Fight a Man With a Perm”, in Joy as an Act of Resistance, performed by Idles:

     I said I've got a penchant for smokes and kicking douches in the mouth / Sadly for you my last cigarette's gone out

• doos

douche (third-person singular simple present douches, present participle douching, simple past and past participle douched)

1. (transitive) To administer a douche to; to shower; to douse
   • 1926, D. H. Lawrence, chapter II, in The Plumed Serpent, New York: Knopf:

     […] a frizzy half-white woman who looked as if she had fallen into a flour-sack, her face was so deep in powder, and her frizzy hair and her brown silk dress so douched with the white dust of it.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VI, in Capricornia‎, page 81:

     Mrs. McLash's anger was gone completely, douched not nearly so much by the beer as by this attention to her son.

   • 1992, Edna O'Brien, chapter 9, in Time and Tide, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, page 66:

     The boxes would reek of the smell of rich plum cake, with brandy or sherry douched over it.

   • 2007, Valerie Allen, On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, page 153:

     Tragedy acts then like a laxative […] or an aperient […] to douche our systems of humors and emotions that unbalance the soul, so that we may return to the virtuous golden mean, to homeostatic equilibrium.

2. (intransitive) To use a douche.
   • 2023 October 1, Jordyn Holman, “Gen Z Wants Feminine Care Brands to Just Say Vagina”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     (In a 2002 study, 58.5 percent of Black women reported douching and 35.6 percent of Hispanic women said they did the same, compared with 26.6 percent of white women.)

• IPA^(key): /duʃ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dou‧che

Borrowed from French douche (“shower”), from Italian doccia (“shower”). See also does (“shower head”).

douche m or f (plural douches, diminutive doucheje n)

1. shower

   Synonym: stortbad

• does (nonstandard spelling reflecting informal pronunciation)

• → Indonesian: dus (“shower”)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

douche

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of douchen

Borrowed from Italian doccia.

• IPA^(key): /duʃ/

• audio

  (file)

douche f (plural douches)

1. shower
2. (juggling) shower

douche

1. inflection of doucher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• douche vaginale

• doucher
• douchette

• bain

• “douche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from French douche, from Italian doccia.

douche f (plural douches)

1. (Jersey) shower