Word.ws English Dictionary

sank or swam

sank or swam is the simple past of sink or swim.

Meaning of sink or swim

Verb

sink or swim (third-person singular simple present sinks or swims, present participle sinking or swimming, simple past sank or swam, past participle sunk or swum)

  1. (idiomatic) To succeed through one's own efforts without support, or else fail completely.
    • "No matter, we are going, live or die, sink or swim; and I shall expect to meet you, all booted and spurred and fit for the fight, April first," said the unwavering Amanda.1872, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 1, in Shawl-Straps

Questions about sank or swam

What is sank or swam the simple past of?
Sank or swam is the simple past of sink or swim.

Words near sank or swam in the dictionary

  1. Sanjurjo
  2. Sanjurjos
  3. Sanjō
  4. sank
  5. sank in
  6. sank or swam
  7. sank work
  8. sank you
  9. Sanka
  10. Sankalp
  11. Sankar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sank or swam (page history and authors); sink or swim (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “sank or swam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sank_or_swam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.