Word.ws English Dictionary

swing

/ˈswɪŋ/

swing verb: to rotate about an off-centre fixed point.

swing: to rotate about an off-centre fixed point
Image: Jason clendenen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

swing (third-person singular simple present swings, present participle swinging, simple past swung or (archaic or dialectal) swang, past participle swung or (archaic or dialectal) swang or (archaic) swungen)

  1. (intransitive) To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.
    • The plant swung in the breeze.
    • With one accord the tribe swung rapidly toward the frightened cries, and there found Terkoz holding an old female by the hair and beating her unmercifully with his great hands.1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 12, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert]...
  2. (intransitive) To dance.
  3. (intransitive) To ride on a swing.
    • The children laughed as they swung.
  4. (intransitive) To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wifeswapping.
    • We find it difficult to meet couples our age, and often swing with single, straight men. We have rules: no married guys cheating on their wives, no one too young or too old, and no one who supports Trump.2017 October 13, anonymous author, “My life in sex: ‘We have rules for swinging: no one cheating on their wives, no one who supports Trump’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 17...
    • My husband wasn’t so lucky and didn’t get to swing at all so was very disappointed. I’m desperate to do it all again but he’s not so keen.2023 October 26, Eleanor Gordon-Smith, anonymous quotee, “My husband persuaded me to swing. I’m desperate to do it again, he’s not – what should I do?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the...
  5. (intransitive) To hang from the gallows; to be punished by hanging, swing for something or someone; (often hyperbolic) to be severely punished.
    • “It's all clear,” he whispered. “Have you the chisel and the bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!”
      Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts.1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League
  6. (transitive) (of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.
  7. (intransitive) To move sideways in its trajectory.
  8. (intransitive) To fluctuate or change.
    • It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability.
  9. (transitive) To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave.
    • He swung his sword as hard as he could.
  10. (transitive) To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election.
  11. (slang, transitive) To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially.
    • If it’s not too expensive, I think we can swing it.
  12. (transitive) To play notes that are in pairs by making the first of the pair slightly longer than written (augmentation) and the second shorter, resulting in a bouncy, uneven rhythm.
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  1. (intransitive, transitive) To move one's arm in a punching motion.
  2. (transitive) In dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms.
    • "to swing one's partner", or simply "to swing"
  3. (transitive) To admit or turn something for the purpose of shaping it; said of a lathe.
    • The lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter.
  4. (transitive) To put (a door, gate, etc.) on hinges so that it can swing or turn.
  5. To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor.
    • A ship swings with the tide.
  6. To turn in a different direction.
    • Soon after departure, we cross the invisible border into Scotland to enjoy more stunning coastal scenery, before the line finally swings inland at Burnmouth to traverse pine-clad valleys, shadowed by the A1 trunk road until we rejoin the coast at Cove, east of Dunbar.2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75
  7. To be sexually oriented.
    • swing both ways
    • "The Jumping Place," the second play we did, was directed by the author, and the whole cast of seven was straight. We don't ask when somebody comes here how they swing, only that they commit themselves to the principles of the theatre.1977 February 12, Don Shewey, John Glines, “Theatre Profiles Part II”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 33, page 9
  8. (transitive) To engage in sexual activity with a man (specifically, with his penis)
    • She couldn't wait to get out of the restaurant with him, so she could take him back to her place and swing on his dick all night.

Noun

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

  1. The act, or an instance, of swinging.
    • For a time he kept to the ground, but finally, discovering no spoor indicative of nearby meat, he took to the trees. With the first dizzy swing from tree to tree all the old joy of living swept over him. Vain regrets and dull heartache were forgotten. Now was he living. Now, indeed, was the true...1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 119
  2. The manner in which something is swung.
    • He worked tirelessly to improve his golf swing.
    • Door swing indicates direction the door opens.
  3. The sweep or compass of a swinging body.
  4. A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing.
  5. A hanging seat that can swing back and forth, in a children's playground, for acrobats in a circus, or on a porch for relaxing.
    • To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
    • A German court has ruled that a landlord was within her rights to evict a man for persistently using a squeaky swing set as a sex prop in his flat late at night.2014 August 22, “German sex-swing enthusiast evicted from flat after noise complaints”, in The Guardian, sourced from Associated Press, →ISSN
  6. An energetic and acrobatic late-1930s partner-based dance style, also known as jitterbug and lindy-hop.
  7. The genre of music associated with this dance style.
    • It makes no diff'rence / if it's sweet or hot. / Just give that rhythm / ev'rything you've got! / It don't mean a thing / if it ain't got that swing.1931, “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”, Irving Mills (lyrics), Duke Ellington (music), performed by Ivie Anderson with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra, Brunswick, catalog...
  8. The amount of change towards or away from something.
    • Miss Pole came round with a swing to as vehement a belief in the sorrowful tale as she had been sceptical before […]1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford
    1. In an election, the increase or decrease in the number of votes for opposition parties compared with votes for the incumbent party.
      • The polls showed a wide swing to Labour.
  9. Sideways movement of the ball as it flies through the air.
  10. Capacity of a turning lathe, as determined by the diameter of the largest object that can be turned in it.
  11. In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.
    • I started as a swing. I mostly played Joanne and Mrs. Jefferson, the “Seasons of Love” soloist. I closed it out. So I was there for about the last four or five years.2025 April 11, Stephen J. Dubner, quoting Crystal Monee Hall, “How Is Live Theater Still Alive?”, in Freakonomics Radio, number 629
  12. A basic dance step in which a pair link hands and turn round together in a circle.
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  1. The maximum amount of change that has occurred or can occur; the sum of the maximum changes in any direction.
    • Jesus' finishing has been one of the main concerns - since the start of last season the 23-year-old has underperformed his Premier League expected goals tally by 6.97goals ^([sic]) (in short, he has scored seven fewer goals than would be expected from the chances presented to him).
      In contrast...2021 February 4, Raj Chohan, “Erling Braut Haaland: Would Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea suit striker best?”, in BBC Sport
  2. (obsolete) Free course; unrestrained liberty.
    • Take thy swing.1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Tenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […]...
    • To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle on the full swing of his genius.1788, Edmund Burke, speech in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings
  3. Influence or power of anything put in motion.
  4. A type of hook with the arm more extended.

Proper noun capitalized: Swing

Swing (plural Swings)

  1. A surname.

swing meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

swing in Hindi

swing
झूला jhūlā
to swing
झूलना jhūlnā, झूमना jhūmnā
a swing
हिंडोला hiṇḍolā
to swing, to sway
हिलना hilnā

swing in Tamil

hanging seat
ஊஞ்சல் ūñcal

swing in Marathi

a swing
झोपाळा jhopāḷā
to swing, to sway
हलणे halṇe

swing in Urdu

swing; hammock
جھولا jhūlā
More languagesFewer languages
swing in Bengali
দোলা dōla, দোলনা dōlna, ঝোলা jhōla
swing in Telugu
ఉయ్యాల uyyāla, ఊయల ūyala
swing in Malayalam
ഊഞ്ഞാൽ ūññāl
swing in Kannada
ಉಯ್ಯಾಲೆ uyyāle
swing in Punjabi
ਝੂਟਣਾ jhūṭṇā
swing in Gujarati
સ્વિંગ sviṅg
swing in Odia
ଝୁଲିବା
swing in Sanskrit
हिल्लोलय hillolaya, हिन्दोल hindola, खट्वा khaṭvā
swing in Assamese
দোলা düla, জুলা zula
swing in Arabic
تَأَرْجَحَ taʔarjaḥa, أُرْجُوحَة ʔurjūḥa, مُرْجِيحَة murjīḥa
swing in Malay
buai, berayun, buaian
swing in Indonesian
bandul
swing in Persian
تاب tâb, گاز gāz
swing in Thai
ชิงช้า ching-cháa, หมัดเหวี่ยงยาว
swing in Vietnamese
đu, đung đưa, xích đu

Examples of swing in a sentence

  • the swing of a pendulum
  • With the first dizzy swing from tree to tree all the old joy of living swept over him.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 119:
  • Improve your golf swing by taking your mate to the driving range.2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135:

All 40 example sentences with swing

Synonyms of swing

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of swing

Forms of swing

Verb
third-person singular presentswings
present participleswinging
pastswung
past participleswung
past (archaic, dialectal)swang
past participle (archaic, dialectal)swang
past participle (archaic)swungen
Noun
pluralswings
Proper noun
pluralSwings

Past tense of swing: swung

Plural of swing: swings

Origin of swing

From Middle English swyngen, from Old English swingan, from Proto-West Germanic *swingan, from Proto-Germanic *swinganą (compare Low German swingen, German schwingen, Dutch zwingen, Swedish svinga), from Proto-Indo-European *swenk-, *sweng- (compare Scottish Gaelic seang (“thin”)). Related to swink.

Words formed from swing

Phrases with swing

71 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with swing

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swing

What does swing mean?
Swing means to rotate about an off-centre fixed point.
What is swing in Hindi?
Swing in Hindi is झूला (jhūlā), झूलना (jhūlnā), झूमना (jhūmnā). See Swing meaning in Hindi.
How do you use swing in a sentence?
the swing of a pendulum
What part of speech is swing?
Swing can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce swing?
Swing is pronounced /ˈswɪŋ/.
What is the past tense of swing?
The past tense of swing is swung.

Words near swing in the dictionary

  1. swineyard
  2. swineyards
  3. Swineys
  4. Swinford
  5. Swinfords
  6. swing
  7. swing and a miss
  8. swing at anchor
  9. swing away
  10. swing back
  11. swing bin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swing (page history and authors); Swing (page history and authors); झूमना (Hindi) (page history and authors); झोपाळा (Marathi) (page history and authors); جھولا (Urdu) (page history and authors); ঝোলা (Bengali) (page history and authors); ਝੂਟਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); swing (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); खट्वा (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); জুলা (Assamese) (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-us-swing.ogg, en-au-swing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “swing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.