swing
/ˈswɪŋ/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms swings swinging swung swang swungen
- verb (intransitive) To rotate about an off-centre fixed point. “The plant swung in the breeze.”
- verb (intransitive) To dance.
- verb (intransitive) To ride on a swing. “The children laughed as they swung.”
- verb (intransitive, sex) To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wifeswapping.
- verb (intransitive) To hang from the gallows; to be punished by hanging, swing for something or someone; (often hyperbolic) to be severely punished.
- verb (transitive, cricket) (of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.
- verb (intransitive, cricket, of a ball) To move sideways in its trajectory.
- verb (intransitive) To fluctuate or change. “It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability.”
- noun The act, or an instance, of swinging.
- noun The manner in which something is swung. “He worked tirelessly to improve his golf swing.”
- noun The sweep or compass of a swinging body.
- noun A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing.
- noun A hanging seat that can swing back and forth, in a children's playground, for acrobats in a circus, or on a porch for relaxing.
- noun An energetic and acrobatic late-1930s partner-based dance style, also known as jitterbug and lindy-hop.
- noun (music) The genre of music associated with this dance style.
- noun The amount of change towards or away from something.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
dance on a rope dance on nothing dance the hempen jig dance the Tyburn jig dance upon nothing dangle hang ride a horse foaled by an acorn stretch hemp string up take a ride to Tyburn trine truss wag hemp swinging vacillation swing music jive lilt golf stroke golf shot baseball swing cut sway swing over sweep swing out drop get around
Etymology
From Middle English swyngen, from Old English swingan, from Proto-West Germanic *swingan, from Proto-Germanic *swinganą (compare Low German swingen, German schwingen, Dutch zwingen, Swedish svinga), from Proto-Indo-European *swenk-, *sweng- (compare Scottish Gaelic seang (“thin”)). Related to swink.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To move to and fro, as a body suspended in the air; to wave; to vibrate; to oscillate.
- verb To sway or move from one side or direction to another; as, the door swung open.
- verb To cause to swing or vibrate; to cause to move backward and forward, or from one side to the other.
- verb To give a circular movement to; to whirl; to brandish; as, to swing a sword; to swing a club; hence, colloquially, to manage; as, to swing a business.
Etymology [OE. swingen, AS. swingan to scourge, to fly, to flutter; akin to G. schwingen to winnow, to swingle, oscillate, sich schwingen to leap, to soar, OHG. swingan to throw, to scourge, to soar, Sw. svinga to swing, to whirl, Dan. svinge. Cf. Swagger, Sway, Swinge, Swink.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “swing”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details