Word.ws English Dictionary

swim upstream

swim upstream verb: to opt for a difficult course of action when a simpler or safer alternative is available; to make an unwise decision against sound advice.

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

Synonyms of swim upstream

  • do something the hard way

Forms of swim upstream

third-person singular presentswims upstream
present participleswimming upstream
pastswam upstream
past participleswum upstream

Questions about swim upstream

What does swim upstream mean?
Swim upstream means to opt for a difficult course of action when a simpler or safer alternative is available; to make an unwise decision against sound advice.
What part of speech is swim upstream?
Swim upstream is a verb.
What is the past tense of swim upstream?
The past tense of swim upstream is swam upstream.

Words near swim upstream in the dictionary

  1. swim rings
  2. swim shorts
  3. swim the Thames
  4. swim the Tiber
  5. swim trunks
  6. swim upstream
  7. swim with sharks
  8. swim-bladder
  9. swim-bladders
  10. swim-in
  11. swim-inner

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-swim upstream.ogg.

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