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.
   • 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, 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

Derived terms

• douche bag, douchebag
• douche boat
• douchecanoe
• douche chills
• douchelord
• douche nozzle/douche-nozzle
• douchey,
• douchy
• douchewad
• douchewagon
• doucheburger
• douchetuber
• douchehole
• doucher
• douchebro
• douchewaffle

Related terms

• doos

Translations

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

• Arabic: وَابِل m (wābil), دُوش m (dūš)

  Egyptian Arabic: دوش m (dōšš)

• Bulgarian: душ (bg) m (duš)
• Czech: sprcha (cs) f, intimní sprcha f, vyplachovač m
• Finnish: suihku (fi)
• French: douche (fr) f, douche vaginale f
• German: Dusche (de) f
• Greek: ντους (el) n (ntous)
• Portuguese: duche (pt) m, (Brazil) ducha (pt) f
• Russian: спринцо́вка (ru) f (sprincóvka), душ (ru) m (duš)
• Serbo-Croatian: tuše m
• Spanish: ducha (es) f

a syringe

• Armenian: հոգնա (hy) (hogna)
• Catalan: clister m, ènema m, clisteri m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 噴射器／喷射器 (zh) (pēnshèqì), 灌水器 (guànshuǐqì)

• Czech: stříkačka (cs) f
• Finnish: ruisku (fi), lääkeruisku
• French: poire de lavement f
• Japanese: 洗浄器 (せんじょうき, senjōki)
• Russian: спринцо́вка (ru) f (sprincóvka)
• Spanish: jeringa (es) f

jerk, idiot — see douchebag

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], →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.)

Derived terms

• douche down

Translations

to use a douche

• French: doucher (fr)
• German: spülen (de)
• Portuguese: duchar (pt) (Brazil)

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

• douchecabine
• douchegel
• douchegordijn
• douchehok
• douchekop
• douchen

 

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

• IPA^(key): /duʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

douche f (plural douches)

1. shower
2. (juggling) shower

Derived terms

• douche dorée
• douche écossaise
• douche froide

 

Verb

douche

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

Derived terms

• douche vaginale

Related terms

• doucher
• douchette

Descendants

Descendants of douche

• → Albanian: dush
• → Arabic: دوش
• → Belarusian: душ (duš)
• → Brazilian Portuguese: ducha
• → Bulgarian: душ (duš)
• → Catalan: dutxa
• → Danish: douche
• → Dutch: douche
• → English: douche
• → Estonian: dušš
• → Friulian: duše
• → German: Dusche
• → Greek: ντους (ntous)
• → Hungarian: tus
• → Latvian: duša
• → Lithuanian: dušas
• → Norwegian: dusj
• → Occitan: docha
• → Persian: دوش (duš)
• → Portuguese: duche
• → Romanian: duș
• → Russian: душ (duš)
• → Serbo-Croatian: tuš
• → Slovene: tuš
• → Spanish: ducha
• → Swedish: dusch
• → Turkish: duş
• → Ukrainian: душ (duš)

See also

• bain

Further reading

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

Indonesian

Etymology

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

Noun

douche (first-person possessive doucheku, second-person possessive douchemu, third-person possessive douchenya)

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

Further reading

• “douche” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French douche, from Italian doccia.

Noun

douche f (plural douches)

1. (Jersey) shower