How to use swoop in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Swoop means to fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive. Example: “The lone eagle swooped down into the lake, snatching its prey, a small fish.”

Examples of swoop by meaning

verbTo fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive.

The lone eagle swooped down into the lake, snatching its prey, a small fish.

verbTo move swiftly, as if with a sweeping movement, especially to attack something.

The dog had enthusiastically swooped down on the bone.
Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards.1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New...
Bridge of Weir: Protection of the site of the former Kilmacolm branch station (closed on January 3 1983) has been lifted, and developers have swooped in with plans for new housing.2022 January 12, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Scotland”, in RAIL, number 948, page 19

verbTo search the ground for discarded cigarette butts that can be made into new cigarettes.

He was forever diving into dustbins or swooping on to the ground for cigarette ends.1989, Michael Bettsworth, Marking Time: A Prison Memoir, page 32
Swooping is picking up discarded cigarette butts from the exercise yard and anywhere else they can be found.2015, Noel 'Razor' Smith, The Criminal Alphabet: An A-Z of Prison Slang

nounAn instance, or the act of suddenly plunging downward.

The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim. – Sun Tzu
Nana was in a hurry, and it was too much trouble to hunt for china dogs at bedtime, so she simply looked about her, and seeing that the toy cupboard door stood open, she made a swoop.1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

nounA quick passage from one note to the next.

Originally, computers' attempts at making music were recognizable by their beeps and boops and weird swoops.2008, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies, page 281

nounA group of swallows or other birds.

an entire swoop of swallows plunges into a breach in time, so they can get across the pass at just the right moment.2022, Baptiste Morizot, Ways of Being Alive, Polity Press
There was a lark in the sky, a chatter of rooks, and the swoop of swallows arrived to-day.1903, William Babington Maxwell, Fabulous Fancies, G. Richards, page 161
Lestrade tugged his muffler closer about his throat and eyed a swoop of gulls balefully as they taunted their wingtips against the water.2025, Marcia Wilson, A Fanged and Bitter Thing, Andrews UK Limited

More sentences with swoop

Changing the oil lubricates the engine and removes debris in one fell swoop.From the entry one fell swoop
“—who swoops you off your feet and away from him,” Heather continued, ignoring my incredulous expression.2020 January 13, Lexxie Couper, Unconditional, Lexxie Couper, →ISBN. From the entry nemesis
Not paying attention, for the first time, means getting eaten by the swooping anomalocarid.2016, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds, William Collins, published 2018, page 35. From the entry anomalocarid
Jack Sinclair gratefully swooped and kicked a goal that cut the margin to five points.2015 May 10, Nathan Schmook, “Billings vs Bont”, in St Kilda Football Club. From the entry kill
Then swoop off into the next room and quickly pull an Irish goodbye.2015, Sarah Knight, The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k, Hachette UK, →ISBN. From the entry Irish goodbye
One of the servers swooped into the study and offered me a Death in the Afternoon.2015 March 20, Mimi Sebastian, The Necromancer's Redemption, ImaJinn Books, →ISBN. From the entry Death in the Afternoon
A red-tailed hawk swooped down into a stand of prickly pears in a “wasty” moonscape.2013, Alex Shoumatoff, Legends of the American Desert. From the entry wasty
Sea birds swooped and dived over the surf and called mewingly to one another.2007, Katherine Hill, The Oxwagon List, page 73. From the entry mewingly
A Skyling suddenly swooped down and snatched Starz right off the ground and flew off.2006, Craig E. Waid, The Misadventures of M.a.d.s.: Lightspeed - Page 66. From the entry skyling
With a huge rush of wind a swooping eagle dropped from out of the night sky.1988, Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, William Heinemann Ltd, page 142. From the entry swooping
Then the old scourge of dusk swooped down upon the warderless hoard.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 40. From the entry shrieking
A hawk came swooping down near tree-level to be immediately assailed by screeching pee-wits.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 107. From the entry peewit
The great script swooped and spated; then broke off, baulkingly, with a scatter of dashes and curves.1934, Susan Miles [pen name; Ursula Wyllie Roberts], Blind Men Crossing a Bridge, Frederick A. Stokes Company, page 585. From the entry baulkingly
Had a pterodactyl swooped down from those old-time crags, it would hardly have been out of place.1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 97. From the entry pterodactyl
Victoria publishes a map of swooping sites, and the website MagpieAlert also allows users to record swoopers near them.2021 August 23, “How to avoid getting swooped by a magpie this spring”, in ABC News. From the entry swooper
She’d lost everything save her life in one fell swoop.2020 February 14, Black Lyte [pseudonym], “A Gift of Savagery”, in Don’t F*ck with the Healer! (Vanta Fantasies; 2), ASIN B084TS14PL. From the entry newbish
Nothing looked more unominous on such a nice day than a planet-killing battle station swooping around in the blue.2017, Anne Tenino, E. J. Russell, For a Good Time, Call... (page 132). From the entry unominous
Now, as she sat in the backseat and they swooped through turn after turn, her tummy felt a lot whoopsy.2014, Ellen Miles, The Puppy Place #34: Zipper. From the entry whoopsy
The blowie was still hoverin around making random swoops on Boris who by now was well beyond caring.2007, Gayle Kennedy, Me, Antman & Fleabag, page 80. From the entry blowie
The SWOOPER started to move faster and faster and soon they were swooping along a dark tunnel, clickity, clickity, clickity-clack.2003, Tom Condon, The Sandman: Stories to Read to Children, page 5. From the entry clickity
But a long, sportjacketed arm swooped in and a big hand palmed the whole stack like pancakes on a spatula.1986 June 21, Mike Robinson, “Bill Bradley, the tax reformer”, in Daily Globe, number 265, Worthington, Minn., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4…. From the entry sportjacketed
Her voice swooped and soared as she raced through some double time vocal gymnastics which included a beautifully clear horn impersonation.1983 April 23, Ruth Borenstein, “Alive! Dazzles”, in Gay Community News, page 11. From the entry gymnastics
Like a seagull swooping, the white figure of a victim snowflaked against the cliff and then plummeted down.1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 143. From the entry snowflake
An occasional crow swooped over them, crying noisily, the only other sound the slowly rising churgle of the train.1952, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, The Clay Hand. From the entry churgle
I need to get it all out at once, inflicting the damage in one foul swoop before facing the fallout left in my wake.2017, BJ Harvey, One Shot, page 59. From the entry in one foul swoop
It swooped down low and landed, its long, ringed legs trembling as it anchored itself on the branch of a thick-trunked tree.2016, Elizabeth Nunez, Prospero's Daughter, →ISBN, page 317. From the entry corbeau
He has been the master of the fire sale, swooping in to snap up bargains in the midst of panics and sell-offs.2010 March 14, Paul Harris, “Carlos Slim: The world's wealthiest man”, in The Observer. From the entry in the midst of
Space Saver's function is to mark all unused, unfavorited, or unkeyworded video in an Event as rejects, all in one fell swoop.2009, David Pogue, Aaron Miller, iMovie '09 & iDVD: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual, page 109. From the entry unfavorited

Meaning of swoop

verb To fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive.
verb To move swiftly, as if with a sweeping movement, especially to attack something.
verb To fall on at once and seize; to catch while on the wing.

Full definition of swoop

Questions about swoop in a sentence

How do you use swoop in a sentence?: Swoop is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The lone eagle swooped down into the lake, snatching its prey, a small fish.”
What is a short sentence with swoop?: “The dog had enthusiastically swooped down on the bone.”
What does swoop mean?: Swoop means to fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive.

Adapted from Wiktionary: swoop (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use swoop in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/swoop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.