swack

• IPA^(key): /swæk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk

From Middle English swac (“weak”), possibly borrowed via Scots swack, ultimately from Old English *swæc (found in derivative swæcehēow (“weakmindedness, nonsense”)), from Proto-West Germanic *swak (“weak”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian swäk, West Frisian swak, Dutch zwak, German Low German swack, German schwach, Norwegian Bokmål svak.

swack (comparative swacker, superlative swackest)

1. (Scotland) Lithe; nimble.
   • 1881, Charles Gibbon, For Lack of Gold, page 307:

     Matthew advanced to the foot of the stairs and whistled. The signal had been expected, for presently he was joined by a swack youth of about eighteen years, who carried a couple of long salmon-spears.

   • 1897, George A. Mackay, Where the Heather Grows, page 161:

     A swack, healthy lass, with plump bust, arms, and legs (the last then evident), laughing lips, eyes over which the dark hair strayed—a guileless face, full of light and love.

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 37:

     it came the turn of a brave young childe with a red head and the swackest legs you ever saw, […] and as soon as he began the drill you saw he'd carry off the prize.

   • 1949, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Journal, page 707:

     He made a run for shelter, and he was a swack enough lad them days for all his weight of years.

   • 1953, Edward Ballard Garside, The Man from Brazil, page 162:

     He was a swack billy-boy, with the same high color as the landlord, and the same tight spaniel curls.

• gracile, svelte, willowy; see also Thesaurus:slender and Thesaurus:flexible

Unknown.

swack (plural swacks)

1. (slang) A large number or amount of something.

   She gave me a swack of books.

   • 1930, Lee Sage, Harvey Fergusson, The Last Rustler: The Autobiography of Lee Sage, page 89:

     They run a Navajo Trading Store along with five hundred cows and a swack of bad horses.

   • 1999, Daniel A. Tauber, Brenda Kienan, SimCity 3000: Unofficial Strategies and Secrets:

     Littleburg is one of the more challenging scenarios on your SC3K CD. You begin with only 9,125 inhabitants, only $1,071 in the bank, and a swack of services that'll choke your pocketbook if you even think of expanding.

Considered dialect by Wright, but now widespread. Scottish National Dictionary proposes an origin in Old Scots (Middle English) swak ("to throw violently"). Compare Scots swak, swack (“to throw with violent force, dash", also "a hard blow or whack”). Compare also Middle Dutch swacken (“to shake, wave”).

swack (countable and uncountable, plural swacks)

1. Synonym of smack
   1. A sharp blow.
      • 1970, Dwight David Eisenhower, The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, page 2032:

        My eighteen holes was simply a long ride in a golfmobile, with me stopping far too many times to take a swack at the ball.

      • 1991, Claudia McCormick, Raven at Sunrise, page 73:

        She hit Kevin with a hard swack, rudely knocking him to his senses.

      • 1996 April, “SmartWool Socks”, in Backpacker, page 48:

        […] they needed nothing more than a good swack against a boulder.

   2. The sound of a sharp blow.
      • 1981, Daniel Peters, The Luck of Huemac: A Novel about the Aztecs, page 351:

        The ball flew between them at incredible speed, hitting off their pads with a swack! that could be heard clearly above the steady splattering of the rain.

      • 1996, Evander Holyfield, Bernard Holyfield, Holyfield: The Humble Warrior, page 45:

        But with its impact, a sound similar to a swack! emanated from the ring and echoed throughout the gym.

      • 2001, William Deverell, The Laughing Falcon, page 142:

        The rest of his ragged company remained seated, their heads low, staring at the earth, panting in the thin air. There was no sound but the swack - swack of the machete.

      • 2003, Sandra Dallas, The Chili Queen:

        But just then, they heard a swack and a man cried, “Ouch!”

   3. A wet sound such as a loud kiss.
      • 1985, Bert Randolph Sugar, George Napolitano, Wrestling's Great Grudge Matches: "battles and Feuds", page 18:

        And Cyndi Lauper is ecstatic, first leaping up in the air and then, for good measure, racing over to give Fabulous Moolah a swack for good luck.

      • 1996, Lewis Nordan, Sugar Among the Freaks, page 47:

        As Molly caught up with him she grabbed the lamprey and yanked. The mouth popped away from J.T.'s body with a swack.

      • 2015, Colleen Oakley, Before I Go:

        He walks up behind me and plants a kiss firmly between where my ear and jawline meet. The swack reverberates in my eardrum.

      • 2002, Kezi Matthews, Flying Lessons, page 1:

        But rain splatting against the bus window and the swack - swacking sound of the big windshield wipers up front punched me awake.

   4. A striking stimulus.
      • 1967, House & Garden - Volume 131, page 150:

        An area rug can supply the zing of pattern or a swack of color to a room that languishes from blandness .

2. An attack, a swipe.
   • 1977, Colette Inez, Alive and Taking Names, and Other Poems, page 52:

     Nothing to say, the oilcloth moans under the swack of Mother's sponge.

   • 1979, Richard L. Weinberg, Lynn Goetsch Weinberg, Parent Prerogatives, page 47:

     She's taken a swack at you, accusing you of ruining your child. It is anger. Don't return it.

   • 2002, Friends Journal - Volume 48, page 46:

     But the severity and brutality of Israeli repression in the Occupied Territories against ordinary people who have nothing to do with extremist activities is far more than the “swack” of frustration Frohlich describes.

3. A single attempt or instance of taking action; a crack; a go.
   • 1966, Civic Administration - Volume 18, page 3:

     We are certainly delighted to see you take another swack at microfilm and are sending our Chapter 14 on the subject.

   • 1977, Gary K. Wolf, A Generation Removed, page 131:

     If we took too much at one time, we'd tip the police that we have operating motor vehicles. Instead, we steal it ten gallons at a swack.

   • 2011, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in America:

     I'm not sure how I feel about taking on the whole Establishment in one swack.

4. (uncountable) Clout; influence.
   • 1999, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on the Nomination of Hon. Richard C. Holbrooke to Serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, page 41:

     You have more swack with their management than they do, the same way you have more swack with foreign leaders than any of the Ambassadors that you talked to.

5. A gulp or hearty swallow.
   • 1951, Fortune - Volume 43, Part 1, page 120:

     What the French criticize," says Le Monde, after a swack at Coca-Cola,“ is not so much Coca-Cola, as its orchestration, less the drink itself than the civilization of which it is a mark and the symbol.

swack (third-person singular simple present swacks, present participle swacking, simple past and past participle swacked)

1. To smack.
   1. To slap or hit.
      • 1885, James Lumsden, Rural Rhymes and Sketches in East Lothian, page 88:

        When Oscar charged the tyrant Loth, Their spears both in flinders flew; Syne swacked they swords in deidly wroth, But a churl behind King Oscar slew!

      • 1946, Lucy Rountree Kuykendall, P.S. to Pecos, page 45:

        The tide was swacking its heart out on the snarls of rocks that intermittently crocheted the coast line.

      • 1969, Richard E. Hicks, Paul Jay Fink, Van Buren O. Hammett, Psychedelic Drugs, page 47:

        Now Baker has been chided quite a bit for his method of treatment for the seeming barbarity of strapping the patients down and swacking them out.

      • 1988, Visitor, page 27:

        The buyers then carry them home, swinging the rope and shouting, "Bettara! Bettara!" to warn people to step aside or risk having their holiday clothes swacked with the sticky pickles.

      • 1995, Suzanne Forster, Come Midnight, page 118:

        Your brother's no hero," Nick told him, shaking plaster snow from his own dark hair and swacking it off his faded denim shirt and jeans.

      • 2001, Willard Manus, Mott the Hoople, page 44:

        I wondered if I should tell the truth, always a dangerous tactic with women, as they usually retaliated by swacking you over the head with an even more devastating truth about yourself .

      • 2005, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, The Last Full Moon: Lessons on My Life:

        My father gleefully took this as a challenge to his tennis skill, unpacked his racquet, and swacked every flying mammal within reach.

      • 2010, James D. Heintz, Apple Box Boy: Slices of Life, page 169:

        With his next move he swacked his ball passed the wicket and was on his way to the next one.

   2. To make a swack (sound).
      • 1885, Henry Mills Alden, Frederick Lewis Allen, Lee Foster Hartman, Harper's - Volume 70, page 73:

        "Rose" looked upon him with unfriendly eye, as his swacking bill-hook would be likely to affright her game.

      • 1983, Julia Howard, A Lasting Image, page 154:

        The windshield wipers were swacking rapidly back and forth in a hopeless attempt to clear away the sheets of water.

      • 1985, Hugh Shimmin, Liverpool Life ; The Courts and Alleys of Liverpool, page 106:

        Ho has a very peculiar way of swacking his lips, and frequently talks of a mutton chop, and how he likes it cooked .

2. To consume with hearty enjoyment.
   • 1919, Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality - Volume 107, page 30:

     At any rate, motoring is not even as you were ”before the war, but a good deal further behind in many respects, buoyed up only by the enthusiasm of released automobilists and neomotorists swacking their fill of new post-war delights.

   • 1969, The Pacific Reporter, page 652:

     The “swacking" of beer, without more, has no direct probative bearing upon any factual issue in this case.

   • 1979, Roger Lichtenberg Simon, Peking Duck: A Moses Wine Detective Novel, page 117:

     By Five o'clock I was back in my room, swacking down Mike's Jack Daniel's with Mike and Harvey.

3. To labour; to exert an effort.
   • 1937, Sidney Corbett, The Cruise of the Gull-Flight, page 133:

     Morgan was out of sight as usual, swacking away in the engine room.

   • 2003, Elana Nachman/Dykewomon, Moon Creek Road: Collected Stories, page 72:

     Becky was a slow reader, patiently swacking her way through every line.

swack (comparative more swack, superlative most swack)

1. With a swack, to the point of touching.
   • 1987, Joseph Monninger, Second Season, page 179:

     Pulling away, Brennan felt his shin swack against Glass's shin, but Glass kept moving.

   • 2009, George Baldry, Lilias Rider Haggard, The Rabbit Skin Cap, page 129:

     Seems to me to be suffin' funny about this 'ere job, doubt but yer an artful young dorg,” and the next moment one of his heavy boots come swack up agin the seat of my trousers.

   • 2011, Richard Farnsworth, Gift of the Bouda:

     A second baseball bat swack against the window and I saw a spider web of cracks with a dense opaque nucleus.

swack (plural swacks)

1. A bum or petty thief.
   • 1938, Michael Foster, To Remember at Midnight, page 107:

     Jake explained it to her: “A swack started it, at the last show one night in Hoquiam,” he said. “I just happened to notice it, and so after that I've planted a couple of stagehands in the audience for Hen-Tooth's act every show, to start it again.

   • 1955, Michael Cunningham, The Bishop Finds a Way, page 156:

     They look drunk—like a swack holding onto a lamp post.

   • 1963, Duncan Thorp, Thanks, Yer Honor: A Novel, page 153:

     I'm looking for a guy — been a swack up and down this coast for twenty years — he scrammed with a bundle of my loot.

• “swack”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• Wright, Joseph (1904) The English Dialect Dictionary‎, volume 5, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 859

• Wacks, cawks, wacks

swak +‎ -k

• IPA^(key): /swat͡sk/

swack m anim

1. diminutive of swak (brother-in-law)