swagger

Pluralswaggers

Formsswaggers, swaggering, swaggered

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A confident, proud, or arrogant manner, especially in the way someone walks, carries themselves, or performs.

   The young quarterback brought a swagger to the offense that the team had been missing.

   Losing the final drained the swagger out of the squad for the rest of the season.

   UsageOften admiring: play with swagger, bring a swagger to a team.

   Similarconfidence, bravado, cockiness, arrogance

   Note

   Unlike the bullying verb, this swagger is often admired: sports writers praise a team's "style and swagger" and notice when it drains away, as BBC Sport did of Tottenham in 2012. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • BBC Sport described Tottenham's lost "style and swagger" in 2012. en.wiktionary.org
2. 2
   act above othersverbintransitive

   To conduct oneself with a pompous air of superiority, especially in one's walk or bearing.

   The new manager swaggered through the office, ignoring anyone below him.

   Officials who swagger about the capital rarely know what voters back home think.

   UsageUsually followed by a direction: swagger into the room, swagger around, swagger through the office.

   Similarstrut, parade, prance

   Note

   The verb is a frequentative of swag, "to sway", which keeps a rolling, self-important walk at its heart. Its first record is Puck's "What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here" in A Midsummer Night's Dream. It often takes about or through, as in Disraeli's Sybil (1845), where a political humbug "swaggers about London clubs". Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Swagger is a frequentative form of swag, meaning "to sway". en.wiktionary.org
   • The verb is first attested in A Midsummer Night's Dream. en.wiktionary.org
   • Puck speaks the quoted line in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3, scene 1; spelling and contraction vary by edition. folger.edu
   • Benjamin Disraeli wrote Sybil, first published in 1845. gutenberg.org
   • Sybil contains "swaggers about London clubs", describing a man called a political humbug; Mr Jermyn speaks the words about Lord Muddlebrains. gutenberg.org
3. 3
   swaying walkverbintransitive

   To walk with a rolling, swaying motion.

   The old fisherman swaggered along the pier with the rolling walk of a lifelong sailor.

   Heavy black bears swagger from side to side as they lumber across the mountain road.

   Similarsway, lurch, waddle

   Note

   This is the sway without the pride, the walk that rolls because the walker cannot keep it straight. Robert Lowell's Life Studies (1959) uses it of a man so drunk he can barely see, rolling his way back in the early hours, and the difference from the pompous strut is cause, not shape: the same rolling gait, but from drink or unsteadiness rather than self-importance.

4. 4
   big talknouncountable or uncountable

   Proud, boastful talk that brags about one's own strength, success or importance.

   The candidate's swagger about crushing his rivals played well with the crowd.

   His loud swagger about his own talent made the rest of the team roll their eyes.

   UsageOften paired with bluster: swagger and bluster.

   Similarbluster, bravado, boasting, bragging

   Note

   Bluster is its usual partner, as in Robert F. Kennedy's On the Mindless Menace of Violence (1968): "Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force." Where the confident swagger can win praise, this one is talk that claims more strength or importance than it has. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • Robert F. Kennedy delivered the speech known as On the Mindless Menace of Violence in 1968. voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu
   • Kennedy said the quoted words in that speech. jfk.org
5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To boast or brag noisily, or to bluster and bully others.

   At the bar he swaggered loudly about the fortune he was sure to make.

   The landlord would swagger and bluster at the tenants, threatening to throw them out if they complained.

   UsageOften swagger about what you have or can do.

   Similarboast, brag, bluster, crow

   Note

   Here the swagger is in the voice, and its target follows at: to be great, writes Jeremy Collier in A Moral Essay upon Pride, is not "to swagger at our footmen". Swift pairs it with hector, its partner in bullying. News writing can also use it as a showier said: "They say there's something wrong with our president!" Mr. Trump swaggered. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Jeremy Collier's A Moral Essay upon Pride contains the quoted wording about swaggering at footmen. en.wiktionary.org
   • Jonathan Swift pairs swagger with hector in a passage describing bullying. gutenberg.org
   • News writing uses swaggered to introduce Trump's quoted words. en.wiktionary.org

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