Word.ws English Dictionary

swinge

/swɪnd͡ʒ/

swinge verb: to singe.

Verb

swinge (third-person singular simple present swinges, present participle swinging or swingeing, simple past and past participle swinged)

  1. (obsolete) To singe.
    • The scorching flame fore swinged all his face1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  2. (archaic) To move like a lash; to lash.
    • Th' old Dragon underground / In ſtraiter limits bound, / Not half ſo far caſts his uſurped ſvvay, / And vvrath to ſee his Kingdom fail, / Svvindges the ſcaly Horrour of his foulded tail.1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 9
  3. (archaic) To strike hard.
    • For certaine words he ſpake againſt your Grace / In your retirment, I had ſwing'd him ſoundly.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Sir Fee[ble]. 'Tis—Jealouſie, the old VVorm that bites— [Aſide] VVho is it you ſuſpect? / Sir Cau[tious]. Alas I knovv not vvhom to ſuſpect, I vvou'd I did; but if you cou'd diſcover him—I vvou'd ſo ſvvinge him.—1686 (first performance), A[phra] Behn, The Luckey Chance, or An Alderman’s Bargain. A Comedy. […], London: […] R. H[olt], for W. Canning, […], published 1687, →OCLC, Act III, scene [iv], page 37
  4. (obsolete) To chastise; to beat.
    • O, the passion of God, so I shall be swinged. / So, my bones shall be bangedǃ / The porridge pot is stolenː what, Lob, say, / Come away, and be hangedǃa. 1575, unknown author, The Marriage of Wit and Wisdom

Noun

swinge (plural swinges)

  1. (archaic) A swinging blow.
  2. (obsolete) Power; sway; influence.

Forms of swinge

Verb
third-person singular presentswinges
present participleswinging
present participleswingeing
past participleswinged
pastswinged
Noun
pluralswinges

Origin of swinge

From Middle English swengen (“to strike”), from Old English swenġan (“to dash, strike; to cause to swing”), from Proto-West Germanic *swangijan (“to cause to swing”).

Words formed from swinge

Words that rhyme with swinge

21 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swinge

What does swinge mean?
Swinge means to singe.
What part of speech is swinge?
Swinge can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce swinge?
Swinge is pronounced /swɪnd͡ʒ/.
What is the past tense of swinge?
The past tense of swinge is swinged.

Words near swinge in the dictionary

  1. swingboats
  2. swingbridge
  3. swingbridges
  4. swingby
  5. swingbys
  6. swinge
  7. swingebuckler
  8. swingebucklers
  9. swinged
  10. swingeing
  11. swingeingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swinge (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-swinge.wav.

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