Word.ws English Dictionary

swam upstream

swam upstream is the simple past of swim upstream.

Meaning of swim upstream

Verb

swim upstream (third-person singular simple present swims upstream, present participle swimming upstream, simple past swam upstream, past participle swum upstream)

  1. (idiomatic) To opt for a difficult course of action when a simpler or safer alternative is available; to make an unwise decision against sound advice.
    • I told my daughter to get her hair dyed at a salon, but she had to swim upstream and do it herself. Now it's a mess.
    Synonyms:
    do something the hard way

Questions about swam upstream

What is swam upstream the simple past of?
Swam upstream is the simple past of swim upstream.

Words near swam upstream in the dictionary

  1. swaly
  2. swam
  3. swam like a fish
  4. swam the Thames
  5. swam the Tiber
  6. swam upstream
  7. swam with sharks
  8. swamboite
  9. swamee
  10. swamees
  11. swami

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swam upstream (page history and authors); swim upstream (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.

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