sink or swim

sink or swim verb: to succeed through one's own efforts without support, or else fail completely.

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)

(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
- "Now, come, Pinto, we're all in this, sink or swim."1920, Edgar Wallace, chapter 35, in Jack O' Judgment

অথবা পুরোপুরি ব্যর্থ হওয়া

third-person singular present	sinks or swims
present participle	sinking or swimming
past	sank or swam
past participle	sunk or swum

Possibly from the practice of throwing a suspected witch into water.

What does sink or swim mean?: Sink or swim means to succeed through one's own efforts without support, or else fail completely.
What is sink or swim in Bengali?: Sink or swim in Bengali is অথবা পুরোপুরি ব্যর্থ হওয়া. See Sink or swim meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is sink or swim?: Sink or swim is a verb.
What is the past tense of sink or swim?: The past tense of sink or swim is sank or swam.

Adapted from Wiktionary: sink or swim (page history and authors); sink or swim (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sink or swim.wav.

Cite this entry: “sink or swim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sink_or_swim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.