swim
/swɪm/ verb, noun, pronoun, proper noun
Forms swims swimming swam swum swammest swimmand
- verb (intransitive) To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means.
- verb (intransitive) To become immersed in, or as if in, or flooded with, or as if with, a liquid. “swimming in self-pity”
- verb (intransitive) To move around freely because of excess space.
- verb (transitive) To traverse (a specific body of water, or a specific distance) by swimming; or, to use a specific swimming stroke; or, to compete in a specific swimming event. “For exercise, we like to swim laps around the pool.”
- verb (transitive, uncommon) To cause to swim. “to swim a horse across a river”
- verb (intransitive, archaic) To float. “sink or swim”
- verb (intransitive) To be overflowed or drenched.
- verb (transitive) To immerse in water to make the lighter parts float. “to swim wheat in order to select seed”
- noun An act or instance of swimming. “I'm going for a swim.”
- noun The sound, or air bladder, of a fish.
- noun (UK) A part of a stream much frequented by fish.
- noun A dance or dance move of the 1960s in which the arms are moved in imitation of various swimming strokes, such as freestyle, breaststroke, etc.
- noun (figurative) The flow of events; being in the swim of things.
- noun A dizziness; swoon.
- verb (intransitive) To be dizzy or vertiginous; have a giddy sensation; to have, or appear to have, a whirling motion. “My head was swimming after drinking two bottles of cheap wine.”
- pronoun (Internet) Someone who isn't me; someone who isn't myself “SWIM would like to know how to grow marijuana.”
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English swymmen, from Old English swimman (“to swim, float”) (class III strong verb; past tense swamm, past participle geswummen), from Proto-West Germanic *swimman, from Proto-Germanic *swimmaną (“to swim”), from Proto-Indo-European *swem(bʰ)- (“to be unsteady, move, swim”).
Cognate with North Frisian sweem, swome, swume, swumi, swumme, swääm (“to swim”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian swimme (“to swim”), Dutch zwemmen (“to swim”), German schwimmen (“to swim”), Limburgish schwämme, zwömme (“to swim”), Low German swimmen (“to swim”), Luxembourgish schwammen (“to swim”), Vilamovian švymma, śwyma, śwymma (“to swim”), Yiddish שווימען (shvimen, “to swim”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål svømme (“to swim”), Faroese svimja (“to swim”), Norn suma (“to swim”), Norwegian Nynorsk svemja, svemje, svømma, svømme, symja, symje (“to swim”), Swedish simma (“to swim”).
From Middle English swime, sweme, swaime (“a dizziness, swoon, trance”), from Old English swīma (“a swoon, swimming in the head”). Cognate with Swedish svimma (“to swoon, faint”) and Danish svime (“to swoon, faint”) / Danish besvime (“to swoon, faint”).
Abbreviation of someone who isn't me.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To be supported by water or other fluid; not to sink; to float; as, any substance will swim, whose specific gravity is less than that of the fluid in which it is immersed.
- verb To move progressively in water by means of strokes with the hands and feet, or the fins or the tail.
- verb To pass or move over or on by swimming; as, to swim a stream.
- verb To cause or compel to swim; to make to float; as, to swim a horse across a river.
Etymology [AS. swimman; akin to D. zwemmen, OHG. swimman, G. schwimmen, Icel. svimma, Dan. swömme, Sw. simma. Cf. Sound an air bladder, a strait.]
Etymology [OE. swime dizziness, vertigo, AS. swima; akin to D. zwijm, Icel. svimi dizziness, svina to subside, svia to abate, G. schwindel dizziness, schwinden to disappear, to dwindle, OHG. swinan to dwindle. Cf. Squemish, Swindler.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “swim”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details