swagging

Verb (1)

swag (third-person singular simple present swags, present participle swagging, simple past and past participle swagged)

1. (ambitransitive) To (cause to) sway.
   • Hungry clouds swag on the deep1790, William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Argument, p. 1

   Synonyms:

   sway, lurch

2. (intransitive) To droop; to sag.
   • so laid, they are more apt in swagging down, to pierce with their points, then in the jacent Posture1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC
3. (transitive) To decorate (something) with loops of draped fabric.
   • Dior wouldn’t be Dior without the swagged ball gown[…].2009 January 29, Cathy Horyn, “In Paris, a Nod to Old Masters”, in New York Times
4. (transitive) To install (a ceiling fan or light fixture) by means of a long cord running from the ceiling to an outlet, and suspended by hooks or similar.
   • Hooks come with screws for use in plaster or wood and toggles for use in wallboard. One hook should be sufficient to swag a lamp from a ceiling outlet.1991, Kalton C. Lahue, Cheryl Smith, Interior Lighting, page 19

Verb (2)

swag (third-person singular simple present swags, present participle swagging, simple past and past participle swagged)

1. (Australia, ambitransitive) To travel on foot carrying a swag (possessions tied in a blanket).
   • He told me that times had been bad at Invercargill, and that he had started for fresh pastures, had worked his passage up as mate in a small craft from the south, and, arriving in Port Underwood, had swagged his calico tent over the hill, and was now living in it, pitched in the manuka scrub.1880, James Coutts Crawford, Recollections of Travel in New Zealand and Australia, page 259
2. To transport stolen goods.
   • Well, one night we were rather hard up and we wanted a good feed, so five or six of us set out, along with a great stout fellow, and we actually stole a whole sheep that was hanging at a butcher's door, and the big chap swagged it home.1869, Frank Henderson, Six years in the prisons of England, page 225

See all 18 meanings of swag