Word.ws English Dictionary

swing and a miss

swing and a miss noun: a sincere but unsuccessful attempt.

Noun

swing and a miss (usually uncountable, plural swings and misses)

  1. (idiomatic, usually, almost always preceded by a) A sincere but unsuccessful attempt.
    • A letter arrived from then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's enforcer of the faith, instructing him to behave as a Roman Catholic politician and vote No. . . . And, of course, Mr. Koopmans voted Yes on the legislation. . . . A swing and a miss for Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.2005 June 4, Michael Valpy, “Dutch, Belgians take gay marriage in stride”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, archived from the original on 23 Jan 2025, retrieved 11 Jan 2016
    • Beef carpaccio with walnuts, lemon and pecorino is a swing and a miss: almost flavorless.2009 November 24, Sam Sifton, “Dining and Wine: A Voce Columbus”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Jan 2021, retrieved 11 Jan 2016

Forms of swing and a miss

pluralswings and misses

Origin of swing and a miss

An allusion to unsuccessful physical actions in such sports as cricket, baseball or boxing, as when swinging a bat at a pitched ball or when throwing a punch at an opponent.

Questions about swing and a miss

What does swing and a miss mean?
Swing and a miss means a sincere but unsuccessful attempt.
What part of speech is swing and a miss?
Swing and a miss is a noun.
What is the plural of swing and a miss?
The plural of swing and a miss is swings and misses.

Words near swing and a miss in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swing and a miss (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-swing and a miss.ogg.

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