swing

The act, or an instance, of swinging.

Noun

  1. The act, or an instance, of swinging.
    • For a time he kept to the ground, but finally, discovering no spoor indicative of nearby meat, he took to the trees. With the first dizzy swing from tree to tree all the old joy of living swept over him. Vain regrets...
  2. 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
  3. The sweep or compass of a swinging body.
  4. 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.
    • To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling. - 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The...
    • A German court has ruled that a landlord was within her rights to evict a man for persistently using a squeaky swing set as a sex prop in his flat late at night. - 2014 August 22, “German sex-swing enthusiast evicted...
  6. An energetic and acrobatic late-1930s partner-based dance style, also known as jitterbug and lindy-hop.
  7. The genre of music associated with this dance style.
    • 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. - 1931, “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”, Irving...
  8. The amount of change towards or away from something.
    • Miss Pole came round with a swing to as vehement a belief in the sorrowful tale as she had been sceptical before […] - 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford:

    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. 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. In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.
    • I started as a swing. I mostly played Joanne and Mrs. Jefferson, the “Seasons of Love” soloist. I closed it out. So I was there for about the last four or five years. - 2025 April 11, Stephen J. Dubner, quoting Crystal...
  12. A basic dance step in which a pair link hands and turn round together in a circle.

Origin

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.

Forms

swings

Derived

away swing backswing bird's nest swing check swing check-swing compass swing counterswing downswing electro swing go with a swing gypsy swing in full swing inswing Kuznets swing love swing midswing mood swing neo-swing new jack swing new jill swing outswing porch swing preswing reverse swing

Verb

  1. To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.
    • The plant swung in the breeze.
    • 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. - 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs,...
    • 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...
  2. To dance.
  3. To ride on a swing.
    • The children laughed as they swung.
  4. To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wifeswapping.
    • We find it difficult to meet couples our age, and often swing with single, straight men. We have rules: no married guys cheating on their wives, no one too young or too old, and no one who supports Trump. - 2017 October...
    • My husband wasn’t so lucky and didn’t get to swing at all so was very disappointed. I’m desperate to do it all again but he’s not so keen. - 2023 October 26, Eleanor Gordon-Smith, anonymous quotee, “My husband persuaded...
  5. To hang from the gallows; to be punished by hanging, swing for something or someone; (often hyperbolic) to be severely punished.
    • “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...

    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 swing take a ride to Tyburn trine truss wag hemp

  6. To move sideways in its trajectory.
  7. To make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.
  8. To fluctuate or change.
    • It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability.
  9. To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave.
    • He swung his sword as hard as he could.
  10. To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election.
  11. To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially.
    • If it’s not too expensive, I think we can swing it.
  12. 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.

Forms

swings swinging swung swang swungen

Derived

aswing at church every time the doors swing open come out swinging counterswing forswing mis-swing not enough room to swing a cat outswing overswing swingable swing at anchor swing away swing back swingbin swingboat swing both ways swingby swing by swinger swing for swing for the fence swing for the fences swing into action swingle