Word.ws English Dictionary

swing for the fence

swing for the fence is the alternative form of swing for the fences.

Meaning of swing for the fences

Verb

swing for the fences (third-person singular simple present swings for the fences, present participle swinging for the fences, simple past and past participle swung for the fences)

  1. (US) To swing at the ball as hard as possible, with the aim of getting a home run.
    • Don't swing for the fences unless it's an easy ball; be content with running part way.
  2. (US, idiomatic) To do something extremely ambitious, especially rashly.
    • I'm not going to swing for the fences tomorrow, but I'm hoping my speech will be warmly received.

Forms of swing for the fence

third-person singular presentswings for the fence
present participleswinging for the fence
past participleswung for the fence
pastswung for the fence

Questions about swing for the fence

What is swing for the fence the alternative form of?
Swing for the fence is the alternative form of swing for the fences.

Words near swing for the fence in the dictionary

  1. swing dog
  2. swing dogs
  3. swing door
  4. swing doors
  5. swing for
  6. swing for the fence
  7. swing for the fences
  8. swing gang
  9. swing gangs
  10. swing gate
  11. swing handle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swing for the fence (page history and authors); swing for the fences (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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Cite this entry: “swing for the fence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swing_for_the_fence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.