swing

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swing

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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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈswɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

swing (third-person singular simple present swings, present participle swinging, simple past swung or (archaic or dialectal) swang, past participle swung or (archaic) swungen)

1. (intransitive) To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.

   Troponyms: pivot, swivel

   The plant swung in the breeze.

   • 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 12, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:

     With one accord the tribe swung rapidly toward the frightened cries, and there found Terkoz holding an old female by the hair and beating her unmercifully with his great hands.

   • 2012 February 29, Troy Denning, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse‎, Random House, →ISBN, page 3:

     The starliner swung into orbit around the planet Coruscant, and beyond the observation bubble appeared a glittering expanse of a billion golden lights. Through a thousand centuries of strife, those lights continued to shine.

2. (intransitive) To dance.
3. (intransitive) To ride on a swing.

   The children laughed as they swung.

4. (intransitive) To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wife-swapping.
5. (intransitive) To hang from the gallows; to be punished by hanging, swing for something or someone; (often hyperbolic) to be severely punished.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:die by hanging

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League:

     “It's all clear,” he whispered. “Have you the chisel and the bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!”
     Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts.

6. (intransitive, cricket, of a ball) To move sideways in its trajectory.
7. (transitive, cricket) (of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.
8. (intransitive) To fluctuate or change.

   It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability.

9. (transitive) To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave.

   He swung his sword as hard as he could.

10. (transitive) To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election.
11. (transitive, slang) To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially.

    If it’s not too expensive, I think we can swing it.

12. (transitive, music) To play notes that are in pairs by making the first of the pair slightly longer than written (augmentation) and the second shorter, resulting in a bouncy, uneven rhythm.
13. (transitive and intransitive, boxing) To move one's arm in a punching motion.
14. (transitive) In dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms.

    "to swing one's partner", or simply "to swing"

15. (transitive, engineering) To admit or turn something for the purpose of shaping it; said of a lathe.

    The lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter.

16. (transitive, carpentry) To put (a door, gate, etc.) on hinges so that it can swing or turn.
17. (nautical) To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor.

    A ship swings with the tide.

18. To turn in a different direction.
    • 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:

      Soon after departure, we cross the invisible border into Scotland to enjoy more stunning coastal scenery, before the line finally swings inland at Burnmouth to traverse pine-clad valleys, shadowed by the A1 trunk road until we rejoin the coast at Cove, east of Dunbar.

19. To be sexually oriented.

    swing both ways

    • 1977 February 12, Don Shewey, John Glines, “Theatre Profiles Part II”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 33, page 9:

      "The Jumping Place," the second play we did, was directed by the author, and the whole cast of seven was straight. We don't ask when somebody comes here how they swing, only that they commit themselves to the principles of the theatre.

• (be executed by hanging): fry

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

1. The manner in which something is swung.

   He worked tirelessly to improve his golf swing.

   Door swing indicates direction the door opens.

   the swing of a pendulum

   • 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135:

     Improve your golf swing by taking your mate to the driving range. If you're good, you can show off and give her some tips. If you stink, play it for laughs.

2. The sweep or compass of a swinging body.
3. A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing.
5. 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.
   • 1918, W B Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.

6. An energetic and acrobatic late-1930s partner-based dance style, also known as jitterbug and lindy-hop.
7. (music) The genre of music associated with this dance style.
   • 1931, “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”, Irving Mills (lyrics), Duke Ellington (music), performed by Ivie Anderson with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra, Brunswick, catalog number 6265:

     It makes no diff'rence / if it's sweet or hot. / Just give that rhythm / ev'rything you've got! / It don't mean a thing / if it ain't got that swing.

8. The amount of change towards or away from something.
   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford:

     Miss Pole came round with a swing to as vehement a belief in the sorrowful tale as she had been sceptical before […]

   1. (politics) In an election, the increase or decrease in the number of votes for opposition parties compared with votes for the incumbent party.

      The polls showed a wide swing to Labour.

9. (cricket) Sideways movement of the ball as it flies through the air.
10. Capacity of a turning lathe, as determined by the diameter of the largest object that can be turned in it.
11. (theater) In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.
12. A basic dance step in which a pair link hands and turn round together in a circle.
13. The maximum amount of change that has occurred or can occur; the sum of the maximum changes in any direction.
    • 2021 February 4, Raj Chohan, “Erling Braut Haaland: Would Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea suit striker best?”, in BBC Sport‎:

      Jesus' finishing has been one of the main concerns - since the start of last season the 23-year-old has underperformed his Premier League expected goals tally by 6.97goals (in short, he has scored seven fewer goals than would be expected from the chances presented to him).
      In contrast, Haaland is overperforming by 6.83 goals since joining Dortmund, which is almost a 14-goal swing between the pair.

14. (obsolete) Free course; unrestrained liberty.
    • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “ The Tenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. , London: Jacob Tonson , →OCLC:

      Take thy swing.

    • 1788, Edmund Burke, speech in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings:

      To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle on the full swing of his genius.

15. Influence or power of anything put in motion.
16. (boxing) A type of hook with the arm more extended.

• 1937, Ivie Anderson, song “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm” (Gus Kahn, Bronislaw Kaper, Walter Jurman), in film A Day at the Races, Sam Wood (director), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

  All God’s chillun got rhythm. All God's chillun got swing.

  Maybe haven't got money, maybe haven't got shoes.

  All God’s chillun got rhythm for to push away their blues.

• Gwins, wings

swing m inan

1. swing (dance)

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• “swing”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “swing”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Borrowed from English swing.

• IPA^(key): /swiŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing; several senses

• “swing”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

swing m (invariable)

1. swing (music and dance style; golf swing)

• suingue

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing (a dance and music style)
2. swinging (exchange of partners for sex)

• “swing”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

swing n (uncountable)

1. swing

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

• IPA^(key): /ˈswin/
• Rhymes: -in

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing (dance)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “swing”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10