swing

English Online Dictionary. What means swing‎? What does swing mean?

English

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈswɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

Verb

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

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
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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

18. To turn in a different direction.

Coordinate terms

• (be executed by hanging): fry

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

1. The manner in which something is swung.
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.
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.
8. The amount of change towards or away from something.
   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. 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.
14. (obsolete) Free course; unrestrained liberty.
15. Influence or power of anything put in motion.
16. (boxing) A type of hook with the arm more extended.

Quotations

• 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.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Gwins, wings

Czech

Noun

swing m inan

1. swing (dance)

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

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

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English swing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swiŋ/

Noun

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing; several senses

Further reading

• “swing”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

Noun

swing m (invariable)

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

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• suingue

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

Pronunciation

Noun

swing m (plural swings)

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

Further reading

• “swing”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

Noun

swing n (uncountable)

1. swing

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English swing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈswin/ [ˈswĩn]
• Rhymes: -in

Noun

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing (dance)

Usage notes

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.

Further reading

• “swing”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28