"swing for the fences" meaning in English

See swing for the fences in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-swing for the fences.ogg [Australia] Forms: swings for the fences [present, singular, third-person], swinging for the fences [participle, present], swung for the fences [participle, past], swung for the fences [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|swing<,,swung> for the fences}} 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, baseball, softball) To swing at the ball as hard as possible, with the aim of getting a home run. Tags: US Categories (topical): Baseball, Softball Synonyms: swing for the fence Related terms: hit one out of the ballpark, run for the roses, shoot the moon
    Sense id: en-swing_for_the_fences-en-verb-xSsmwVRf Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 59 41 Topics: ball-games, baseball, games, hobbies, lifestyle, softball, sports
  2. (US, idiomatic) To do something extremely ambitious, especially rashly. Tags: US, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-swing_for_the_fences-en-verb-vpllWrs5 Categories (other): American English

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for swing for the fences meaning in English (3.4kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "swings for the fences",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swinging for the fences",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swung for the fences",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "swung for the fences",
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        "past"
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      "args": {
        "1": "swing<,,swung> for the fences"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Baseball",
          "orig": "en:Baseball",
          "parents": [
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            "Sports",
            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
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            "Fundamental"
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          "kind": "topical",
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          "_dis": "59 41",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Don't swing for the fences unless it's an easy ball; be content with running part way.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To swing at the ball as hard as possible, with the aim of getting a home run."
      ],
      "id": "en-swing_for_the_fences-en-verb-xSsmwVRf",
      "links": [
        [
          "baseball",
          "baseball"
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, baseball, softball) To swing at the ball as hard as possible, with the aim of getting a home run."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "hit one out of the ballpark"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "run for the roses"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "word": "shoot the moon"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "94 6",
          "word": "swing for the fence"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
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        "ball-games",
        "baseball",
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        "hobbies",
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    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I'm not going to swing for the fences tomorrow, but I'm hoping my speech will be warmly received.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 September 27, Mark Landler, quoting Kenneth S. Rogoff, “Truss Takes a Bold Economic Gamble. Will It Sink Her Government?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "“This is a very inexperienced government swinging for the fences in a situation where Labour is the strong favorite in the next election, if they don’t swing too far left,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do something extremely ambitious, especially rashly."
      ],
      "id": "en-swing_for_the_fences-en-verb-vpllWrs5",
      "links": [
        [
          "ambitious",
          "ambitious"
        ],
        [
          "rashly",
          "rashly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) To do something extremely ambitious, especially rashly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-swing for the fences.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8c/En-au-swing_for_the_fences.ogg/En-au-swing_for_the_fences.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/En-au-swing_for_the_fences.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "swing for the fences"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "swings for the fences",
      "tags": [
        "present",
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        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swinging for the fences",
      "tags": [
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        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "swung for the fences",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "swung for the fences",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    }
  ],
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      },
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "hit one out of the ballpark"
    },
    {
      "word": "run for the roses"
    },
    {
      "word": "shoot the moon"
    }
  ],
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        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Baseball",
        "en:Softball"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Don't swing for the fences unless it's an easy ball; be content with running part way.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To swing at the ball as hard as possible, with the aim of getting a home run."
      ],
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          "baseball",
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        ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, baseball, softball) To swing at the ball as hard as possible, with the aim of getting a home run."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "ball-games",
        "baseball",
        "games",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "softball",
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      ]
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      "categories": [
        "American English",
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        {
          "text": "I'm not going to swing for the fences tomorrow, but I'm hoping my speech will be warmly received.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 September 27, Mark Landler, quoting Kenneth S. Rogoff, “Truss Takes a Bold Economic Gamble. Will It Sink Her Government?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "“This is a very inexperienced government swinging for the fences in a situation where Labour is the strong favorite in the next election, if they don’t swing too far left,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do something extremely ambitious, especially rashly."
      ],
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          "ambitious"
        ],
        [
          "rashly",
          "rashly"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic) To do something extremely ambitious, especially rashly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
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    }
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      "audio": "En-au-swing for the fences.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/En-au-swing_for_the_fences.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "swing for the fence"
    }
  ],
  "word": "swing for the fences"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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