swing
Pluralswings
Pluralswings
- 1A hanging seat that moves back and forth, found in children's playgrounds, used by circus acrobats, or hung on a porch for relaxing.
A rope swing hung from the old oak tree by the river.
The acrobat leapt from one swing to the next high above the crowd.
Note
The noun often works as a modifier for anything built to hang and rock: a swing chair, a swing set. W. B. Maxwell's The Mirror and the Lamp (1918) has a tiresome guest "rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling," which shows the porch-and-parlor side of the word rather than the playground side.
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- 3To rotate around a fixed point set off-center.
A lantern hanging from the porch beam swung in the wind all night.
Heavy gates swing on hinges mounted to one side.
Note
The physical motion the rest of the word builds on: Old English swingan, with cousins in German schwingen, Dutch zwingen and Swedish svinga, and a relative in swink. The past tense is swung, though an archaic dialectal swang survives beside it. A plant swings on its stem and a lantern on its beam, and a whole crowd can swing round, as Burroughs's apes swing toward a cry in Tarzan of the Apes (1912).
- 4To throw one's arm forward or around in the motion of a punch.
Fighters swing their fists in tight arcs to conserve energy.
He swung too early and lost his balance.
Note
In boxing, the verb describes the path of the arm: a swing travels through an arc instead of driving straight out. It works with or without an object, as in swing a fist or simply swing. Swinging too early or too wide costs a fighter balance. The punch of that name is the noun counterpart.
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- 6The size of a shift from one position, level, or state toward another, as in prices, opinion, or mood.
A sudden swing in oil prices unsettled the markets.
Her mood showed a noticeable swing after the news.
Similarshift, change, fluctuation
Note
Opinion and mood are where this noun is most at home. Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford (1853) has Miss Pole come round "with a swing" to believing a tale she had doubted. The direction is carried by a preposition, as in a swing to belief, a swing towards irritability, or a swing away from caution.
- 7The particular manner in which something is swung.
The batter's swing had a slight upward tilt.
Years of training gave the fencer a fluid swing.
Note
In sport, the noun names a practiced technique, so it readily takes a possessive: his golf swing, the batter's swing. Players work on it and try to improve it, much as they would a serve. Doors have a swing too. On plans, door swing indicates the direction a door opens.
- 8To ride back and forth on a hanging playground seat.
The kids swing on the old tire by the creek.
He swung lazily in the afternoon heat.
- 9In an election, the increase or decrease in votes for opposition parties relative to the incumbent party.
The election showed a five-point swing away from the incumbent.
A late swing in the marginal seats decided the result.
Similarshift
Note
An election analyst's measure of how far support has shifted between two votes, usually given in percentage points. It takes a direction: a swing to one party, a swing away from the incumbent. It works as a count noun (a five-point swing) and also uncountably (how much swing a seat needs). It is the electoral case of the general amount of change.
- 10To turn so as to face or move in a different direction.
The boat swung sharply to avoid the rocks.
Runners swing wide on the final bend.
Note
A route can swing as well as a vehicle. In a 2022 RAIL article, Paul Bigland's train ride into Scotland follows a line that "finally swings inland at Burnmouth." The verb pairs naturally with direction words such as inland, wide and away. It describes a change of heading rather than a stop-and-turn.
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- 13An energetic, acrobatic partner dance from the late 1930s, also known as the jitterbug or lindy hop.
The band struck up a tune and the floor erupted into swing.
She mastered the swing well enough to compete.
Similarjitterbug
- 14The big-band music genre associated with the swing dance style of the late 1930s.
The orchestra specialized in swing and filled the hall every weekend.
Big-band swing dominated American radio in the late 1930s.
Note
The genre's name is also a quality that music either has or lacks. Duke Ellington and Irving Mills's 1931 song "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" puts it plainly in its title. That use sits close to the rhythmic verb. As a genre the word is usually uncountable, as in "the band plays swing."
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- 16A boxing punch thrown with the arm more extended than a hook, traveling in a wide arc.
The boxer's swing caught his rival on the side of the head.
A wide swing leaves the body exposed to a counterpunch.
Note
The noun names one particular punch, a relative of the hook thrown with the arm held further out. That extension gains power through distance but costs speed and leaves the body exposed to a counter. A fighter's wide swing is therefore both a threat and a risk. The motion itself belongs to the punching verb.
- 17To dance, moving the body in time with music.
The dancers swing energetically as the music speeds up.
By midnight the whole wedding party was swinging to the brass band.
Similardance
- 18To have a particular sexual orientation, especially regarding which genders one is attracted to.
When friends asked which way he swings, he just smiled and changed the subject.
Plenty of people swing both ways without putting a label on it.
Note
This sense lives almost entirely in set phrases. Someone swings both ways, or people ask how or which way a person swings. It takes no object and nearly always needs a manner word such as both ways, that way or how to carry the meaning. A bare 'they swing' leans instead toward the swinging-lifestyle sense, so keep the phrase whole when orientation is meant.
- 19The total range of variation between the maximum changes in any direction; the largest difference something can reach.
The annual temperature swing in this region exceeds fifty degrees.
Investors worried about the wide swing in the stock's value.
Similarrange, variation, fluctuation
- 20To turn a dance partner around in a small circle while holding hands or arms.
The dancers swing their partners in time with the music.
He swung his wife around as the fiddle played.
Note
This is the caller's verb in partner dancing: swing your partner. It is transitive, with the partner as its object, but dancers drop the object freely and simply swing. The turn itself has a noun, the basic step, which is what a caller announces when every couple links hands and goes round together.
- 21A rope, cord, or similar thing hung loosely so that something can move back and forth on it.
A heavy swing of rope dangled from the loft, ready to hoist sacks of grain.
Sailors rigged a swing between the masts to move cargo across the deck.
- 22A simple dance figure in which two partners, hands joined, wheel around together in a full circle.
The caller announced a swing, and every couple linked hands to turn together.
She learned the basic swing before moving on to harder steps.
- 23To manage to make something happen, especially to afford it financially.
They managed to swing a weekend trip despite their tight budget.
I don't think we can swing both tuition and a mortgage.
Similarmanage, afford, arrange
Note
A slang use that almost always takes the object it: we can swing it, can you swing it? It usually concerns money, meaning whether a purchase or a trip can be managed. It also carries a sense of only just managing. Because it is slang, it suits conversation; in writing that needs to sound businesslike, manage or afford does the same job.
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- 25To play paired notes with the first slightly longer and the second shorter, creating a bouncy, uneven rhythm.
The pianist swings the eighth notes to give the tune its lazy, rolling feel.
Beginners often forget to swing the rhythm and play everything straight.
Note
The jazz musician's verb, and it takes the notes as its object: you swing the eighth notes. The first note of each pair is stretched past its written length and the second is clipped, which gives the beat its bounce. Players who keep the pairs even are said to play straight. Beginners who forget to swing get exactly that flat, square feel.
- 26To take part in the lifestyle of swapping sexual partners, especially as a couple with other couples.
The couple began to swing after years of curiosity about the lifestyle.
Many partners who swing insist on clear ground rules beforehand.
Note
A word from the sexual subculture its own members call "the lifestyle." It is usually something couples do together, and the construction is swing with someone: with another couple, or with single partners. Keep it apart from the orientation sense. There, swing both ways is about whom one desires, not about exchanging partners, and the two are easily confused.
- 27In musical theater, a performer trained to cover several different roles when the usual cast members are absent.
As the production's swing, she had to memorize the choreography for five roles.
The swing went on at short notice when the lead lost her voice.
Note
Backstage vocabulary. A swing does not cover one part, as a single understudy does, but several tracks, and does not normally appear in the regular cast. Performers use it as a job title: "I started as a swing," Crystal Monee Hall tells Stephen J. Dubner in 2025, describing her years in a long-running show.
- 28To be put to death by hanging; more loosely, to be severely punished for something.
The captured highwayman knew he would swing at dawn.
If the boss finds out about this, you'll swing for it.
Note
The gallows image survives mainly as a threat or a vow: swing for it, swing for someone. In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Red-Headed League (1891), a thief cries "Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" to cover his partner's escape. Today the phrase is usually hyperbole. It promises severe punishment rather than an actual hanging.
- 29To mount a door, gate, or similar object on hinges so that it can move freely back and forth.
The crew swung the heavy oak door on its iron hinges.
Before painting, you must swing the gate to check that it clears the post.
Similarhang
Note
In carpentry, to swing a door is to hang it, not to push it open. The job covers mounting the door on its hinges and then adjusting it so it pivots freely and seats properly in its frame. A gate is swung the same way and checked to see that it clears its post. Out of a carpenter's context, "we swung the gate" could mean either thing.
- 30The sideways movement of a cricket ball as it travels through the air toward the batsman.
The fast bowler generated late swing that beat the batsman completely.
Overcast conditions helped the swing, and wickets fell quickly.
Note
A cricket term for movement in the air, before the ball pitches. It is produced by airflow over the seam and by the different condition of the ball's two sides. Making it happen is the bowler's verb. Commentators prize late swing, which beats the batsman at the last moment, and overcast conditions are often said to help it.
- 31Of a bowled ball, to curve sideways through the air.
- 32In cricket, to bowl the ball so that it drifts to one side as it flies through the air.
- 33Of a lathe, to have room to take and rotate a workpiece of a given size.
- 34Of a ship at anchor, to turn around as wind or tide shifts it.
- 35The capacity of a lathe, given as the widest workpiece it can rotate.
- 36Freedom to act as one likes, with nothing holding one back.
To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle on the full swing of his genius.
1788, Edmund Burke, speech in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings
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Origin
From Middle English swyngen, from Old English swingan, from Proto-West Germanic *swingan and Proto-Germanic *swinganą (compare German schwingen and Dutch zwingen), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swenk-, *sweng-.