swan

Pluralswans, swan

Formsswans, swanning, swanned

1. 1
   nouncountable

   Any of various large, long-necked waterfowl of the genus Cygnus, most species having white plumage.

   A swan paddled silently among the reeds at the pond's edge.

   Two swans defended their nest aggressively when walkers came too close.

   Note

   The name is an old description of the bird. Old English swan goes back through Proto-Germanic *swanaz to an Indo-European root meaning "to sing, make sound", so the word first meant something like "the singing bird". The everyday plural is swans, though swan can also stand unchanged as a plural.

2. 2
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A person whose grace or bearing is reminiscent of a swan.

   She drifted through the ballroom, every inch a swan among the crowd.

   The poet described his beloved as a swan, slender and serene.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To wander or move about idly, aimlessly, or with a pretentiously casual air.

   Tourists swan along the boulevard, pausing wherever a shop window catches their eye.

   She swanned into the party an hour late, greeting no one in particular.

   Similarsaunter, stroll, waltz, breeze, sashay

   Note

   A verb made from the bird's unhurried glide, and nearly always followed by a direction word: people swan around an office, swan off to Sardinia, swan into a party. The tone is disapproving, because the person swanning is idle or showy while others are not. In Lee Rourke's The Canal (2010), a man swans around a stinking office "without a care in the world." The forms double the n: swanned, swanning.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A depiction of the long-necked waterbird used as a charge in heraldry, sometimes shown with a crown around its neck.

   The county displays a swan on its shield, a chained crown about its neck.

   Heralds painted a swan onto the new crest, wings half-raised.

   Note

   Heraldry borrows the bird as a charge, a figure set on a shield or crest. Its telling detail is the crown sometimes placed around its neck, as on the arms of Buckinghamshire. In this sense the word names a design rather than a living bird. A herald who speaks of a swan on a shield means a painted emblem with its own conventions of posture and ornament.

5. 5
   verbdialectalUSintransitive

   To declare or affirm, chiefly in first-person present constructions such as 'I swan.'

   I swan, the price of groceries keeps climbing every single week.

   I do swan, she said, fanning herself against the heat.

   Similarswear, declare

   Note

   An exclamation of surprise or emphasis that has nothing to do with the bird. It probably comes from dialectal I s'wan, a worn-down I shall warrant, or perhaps from a minced I swear on. It survives almost only as I swan, a US dialect phrase much like I declare. Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely (1940) has its narrator answer a story with a bare "I swan."

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