Word.ws English Dictionary

swims upstream

swims upstream is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 swims upstream

What is swims upstream the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Swims upstream is the third-person singular simple present indicative of swim upstream.

Words near swims upstream in the dictionary

  1. swimrun
  2. swims
  3. swims like a fish
  4. swims the Thames
  5. swims the Tiber
  6. swims upstream
  7. swims with sharks
  8. Swimses
  9. swimshirt
  10. swimshirts
  11. swimshorts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swims 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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