swap
/ˈswɒp//ˈswɑp/
swap verb: to exchange or give (something) in an non-normal exchange (for something else).
Verb
swap (third-person singular simple present swaps, present participle swapping, simple past and past participle swapped)
- To exchange or give (something) in an non-normal exchange (for something else).
- In an effort to provide more permanent accommodations, employers may offer employees the opportunity either to swap jobs with a colleague or to transfer to a new position.1998, Michael Wolf with Bruce Friedman and Daniel Sutherland, Religion in the workplace, page 98
- Chief watched these goings-on without pleasure, and waved them off in disgust when the smarmiest of the two suggested he might wish to swap that elk's tooth for this jug of fine rye whiskey.2007, Lloyd Zimpel, A Season of Fire and Ice
- Synonyms:
- exchange, switch, trade, interchange
- To hit, to strike.
- And he whipped his sword out of its scabbard, and swapped off the pudding from the black knight's nose. Unfortunately (for him) he swapped off a good bit of the nose, too.1954, Edward Eager, Half Magic
- "Maybe Apes will grow honest, Sister," said Edmund. "But, by the Lion, if he breaks it again, it may be in such time and place that any of us could swap off his head in clean battle."1954, C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy
- Synonyms:
- bang
- To beat the air, or ply the wings, with a sweeping motion or noise; to flap.
- Synonyms:
- flap
- To descend or fall; to rush hastily or violently.
- Synonyms:
- fly
Noun (1)
swap (plural swaps)
- An exchange of two comparable things.
- I e’en changed it, as occasion served, with the skippers o’ Dutch luggers and French vessels, for gin and brandy[…] a gude swap too, between what cheereth the soul of man and that which dingeth it clean out of his body1819, Sir Walter Scott, Tales of My Landlord, The Bride of Lammermoor
- Flores' nephews were each sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment in 2017 for conspiring to import cocaine, but they were released in 2022 by the Biden Administration as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela.2026 January 5, Callum Sutherland, “Who Is Cilia Flores? What to Know About Maduro’s Wife Amid Fall of Venezuela's First Couple”, in TIME, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2026
- Synonyms:
- barter, quid pro quo, trade
- A financial derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of non-normal cashflow against another stream.
- Space available in a swap file for use as auxiliary memory.
- How much swap do you need?
- A social meal at a restaurant between two university societies, usually involving drinking and banter; commonly associated with fining and pennying; equivalent to a crewdate at Oxford University.
Noun (2)
swap (countable and uncountable, plural swaps)
swap meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
swap in Hindi
- अदला-बदली
swap in Tamil
- மாறுகொள்
swap in Marathi
- अदलाबदल, अदलाबदल करणे
swap in Bengali
- বিনিময় করা
More languagesFewer languages
- swap in Malayalam
- ഒത്തുമാറുക, കെെമാറ്റം ചെയ്യുക, വച്ചുമാറുക, പകരത്തിനുപകരം നൽകുക
- swap in Kannada
- ಮಾರು, ಮಾರ್ಪುಮಾಡು, ಅದಲು ಬದಲು ಮಾಡು
- swap in Punjabi
- بدلنا badalṇā
- swap in Gujarati
- અદલાબદલી
- swap in Tagalog
- magpalitan, magbaligyaan, palitan, baligyaan
- swap in Arabic
- مُبَادَلَة mubādala
- swap in Thai
- แลกเปลี่ยน lɛ̂ɛk-bplìian
- swap in Vietnamese
- giao hoán, sự giao hoán
Examples of swap in a sentence
- Swap those cables over. The red one should be in the left socket.
- I can't keep going; is it okay if I swap out?
- Luckily, on this show we have swap outs, so we don't have to wait.
Synonyms of swap
Forms of swap
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | swaps |
| present participle | swapping |
| past participle | swapped |
| past | swapped |
| alternative form | swop |
| Noun | |
| plural | swaps |
Origin of swap
From Middle English swappen (“to swap”), originally meaning "to hurl" or "to strike", the word alludes to striking hands together when making an exchange; probably from Old English *swappian, a secondary form of Old English swāpan (“to swoop”). Cognate with German schwappen (“to slosh, slop”). Compare also Middle English swippen (“to strike, hit”), from Old English swipian (“to scourge, strike, beat, lash”), Old Norse svipa (“to swoop, flash, whip, look after, look around”). More at swipe.
From the verb swap. First attested in 1620.
From Middle English swap, swappe (“a blow, strike, lash from a whip”), from the verb (see Etymology 1 above).
Words formed from swap
- face-swap
- outswap
- swap horses in midstream
- swap over
- swappable
- swapper
- swap places
- swap spit
- toswap
- unswapped
- blue chip swap
- bodyswap
- bookswap
- cookie swap
- cum swap
- cumswap
- face swap
- formal swap
- full swap
- genderswap
- hard swap
- hot swap
- interest rate swap
- K-swap
- language swap
- LS-swap
- mindswap
- mixed swap
- palette swap
- prisoner swap
- SIM swap
- soft swap
- swap body
- swapbody
- swap box
- swap chain
- swap file
- swaplet
- swap line
- swapling
- swaplist
- swap meet
- swapmeet
- swaporama
- swap partition
- swappiness
- swapportunity
- swap shop
- swapsies
- swap space
- swaption
- tax swap
- Tesla-swap
- Yankee swap
Phrases with swap
- swap in
- swap out
- swap outs
- swap boxes
- swap files
- swap lines
- swap meets
- swap shops
- gender swap
- swap bodies
- swap chains
- swap spaces
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with swap
44 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about swap
- What does swap mean?
- Swap means to exchange or give (something) in an non-normal exchange (for something else).
- What is swap in Hindi?
- Swap in Hindi is अदला-बदली. See Swap meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is swap?
- Swap can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce swap?
- Swap is pronounced /ˈswɒp/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of swap?
- The past tense of swap is swapped.
Words near swap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swap (page history and authors); swap (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swap (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); swap (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); swap (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); swap (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); swap (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); بدلنا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); swap (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-swap.wav, en-us-swap.ogg.
Cite this entry: “swap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.