douche

See also: douché

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /duːʃ/
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːʃ

Noun

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[1], 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 [2]
      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.
  4. (slang, humorous, 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[3], 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

Derived terms

Translations

a jet or current of water or vapour directed upon some part of the body to benefit it medicinally

Verb

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[4], 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[5], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 May 2025:
      (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.)

Derived terms

Translations

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /duʃ/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: dou‧che

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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

  1. shower
    Synonym: stortbad
Alternative forms
  • does (nonstandard spelling reflecting informal pronunciation)
Derived terms
Descendants
  • → Indonesian: dus (“shower”)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

douche

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

French

Etymology

    Borrowed from Italian doccia.

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    douche f (plural douches)

    1. shower
    2. (juggling) shower

    Derived terms

    Verb

    douche

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

    Derived terms

    • douche vaginale

    Descendants

    Descendants

    See also

    Further reading

    Indonesian

    Etymology

    Unadapted borrowing from French douche, from Italian doccia. Doublet of dus.

    Noun

    douche (plural douche-douche)

    1. shower: an instance of using of bathing device in order to bathe oneself

    Further reading

    Norman

    Etymology

    Borrowed from French douche, from Italian doccia.

    Noun

    douche f (plural douches)

    1. (Jersey) shower
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