Word.ws English Dictionary

swinging dick

swinging dick noun: a man, especially one who exhibits bravado or machismo.

Noun

swinging dick (plural swinging dicks)

  1. (slang, vulgar) A man, especially one who exhibits bravado or machismo.
    • "Simple. They're all scared shitless of Polack and Artie, so they hate their guts. They know Polack is running the joint, and there ain't a swingin' dick can do a motherin' thing about it."1970, James Blake, “The Widow, Bereft”, in Martha Foley, David Burnett, editors, The Best American Short Stories 1971
    • If he could make millions of dollars come out of those phones, he became that most revered of all species: a Big Swinging Dick.1989, Michael Lewis, Liar's Poker
  2. (slang, vulgar) A man who is sexually very active.
    • I explained to her in my best stage whisper that I had been seriously wounded in the war, and I was now more a Hemmingwayesque embittered celibate than a swinging dick.2008, Craig Maddox, Robbie, page 248
    • A boozing, pill-popping, swinging dick until the end of time.2010, Joe R Lansdale, The Best of Joe R. Lansdale, page 26
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see swinging, dick.
    • Entertained and amused, they giggle at his swinging dick till the guardy remembers his calling and wrestles the mad man from the building1995, Kwame Dawes, Prophets, Peepal Tree, →ISBN, page 35

Examples of swinging dick in a sentence

  • "I want every swinging dick out there on the firing line, in vests and with maximum ordnance," he said.2008, James Lee Burke, The Tin Roof Blowdown:
  • Why didn't you request a country clearance like every other swinging dick?”2009, Avery Dick, Dick:
  • Well as I see it, there was a swinging dick involved in this picture2009, Leonard Osborns, Decisions:
  • Simon had obviously been a big swinging dick around here, and I wondered how many of them had taken a turn on that swing...2014, Alice Clayton, Rusty Nailed, page 154:

Forms of swinging dick

pluralswinging dicks

Origin of swinging dick

From swinging + dick (“penis”). Appeared in US military and prison slang from the 1950s.

Questions about swinging dick

What does swinging dick mean?
Swinging dick means a man, especially one who exhibits bravado or machismo.
How do you use swinging dick in a sentence?
"I want every swinging dick out there on the firing line, in vests and with maximum ordnance," he said.
What part of speech is swinging dick?
Swinging dick is a noun.
What is the plural of swinging dick?
The plural of swinging dick is swinging dicks.

Words near swinging dick in the dictionary

  1. swinging booms
  2. swinging both ways
  3. swinging bunt
  4. swinging bunts
  5. swinging by
  6. swinging dick
  7. swinging dicks
  8. swinging door
  9. swinging doors
  10. swinging for
  11. swinging for the fences

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swinging dick (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-swinging dick.ogg.

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