Word.ws English Dictionary

swum upstream

swum upstream is the past participle of swim upstream.

Meaning of swim upstream

Verb

swim upstream (third-person singular simple present swims upstream, present participle swimming upstream, simple past swam upstream, past participle swum upstream)

  1. (idiomatic) To opt for a difficult course of action when a simpler or safer alternative is available; to make an unwise decision against sound advice.
    • I told my daughter to get her hair dyed at a salon, but she had to swim upstream and do it herself. Now it's a mess.
    Synonyms:
    do something the hard way

Questions about swum upstream

What is swum upstream the past participle of?
Swum upstream is the past participle of swim upstream.

Words near swum upstream in the dictionary

  1. swtg.
  2. swum
  3. swum like a fish
  4. swum the Thames
  5. swum the Tiber
  6. swum upstream
  7. swum with sharks
  8. swung
  9. swung at anchor
  10. swung away
  11. swung both ways

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swum upstream (page history and authors); swim upstream (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: “swum upstream.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swum_upstream. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.