swing

Troponyms: pivot, swivel

The plant swung in the breeze.

With one accord the tribe swung rapidly toward the frightened cries, and there found Terkoz holding an old female by the hair and beating her unmercifully with his great hands.

1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 12, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC:

The starliner swung into orbit around the planet Coruscant, and beyond the observation bubble appeared a glittering expanse of a billion golden lights. Through a thousand centuries of strife, those lights continued to shine.

2012 February 29, Troy Denning, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse, Random House, →ISBN, page 3:

(intransitive) To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.

The children laughed as they swung.

(intransitive) To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wife-swapping.

“It's all clear,” he whispered. “Have you the chisel and the bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!”
Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts.

1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red-Headed League:

(intransitive) To hang from the gallows; to be punished by hanging, swing for something or someone; (often hyperbolic) to be severely punished.

(intransitive, cricket, of a ball) To move sideways in its trajectory.

(transitive, cricket) (of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.

It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability.

He swung his sword as hard as he could.

(transitive) To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave.

(transitive) To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election.

If it’s not too expensive, I think we can swing it.

(transitive, slang) To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially.

(transitive, music) To play notes that are in pairs by making the first of the pair slightly longer than written (augmentation) and the second shorter, resulting in a bouncy, uneven rhythm.

(transitive and intransitive, boxing) To move one's arm in a punching motion.

"to swing one's partner", or simply "to swing"

(transitive) In dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms.

The lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter.

(transitive, engineering) To admit or turn something for the purpose of shaping it; said of a lathe.

(transitive, carpentry) To put (a door, gate, etc.) on hinges so that it can swing or turn.

A ship swings with the tide.

(nautical) To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor.

Soon after departure, we cross the invisible border into Scotland to enjoy more stunning coastal scenery, before the line finally swings inland at Burnmouth to traverse pine-clad valleys, shadowed by the A1 trunk road until we rejoin the coast at Cove, east of Dunbar.

2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:

en-verb

swing (third-person singular simple present swings, present participle swinging, simple past swung or (archaic or dialectal) swang, past participle swung or (archaic) swungen)

swings (present singular third-person)
swinging (participle present)
swung (past)
swang (archaic dialectal past)
swung (participle past)
swungen (archaic participle past)

at church every time the doors swing open

swaai

to rotate about an off-centre fixed point

zhoupnout se pf (expressive, colloquial, euphemistic)

kiertyä

cricket: of a ball, to move sideways in its trajectory

svengata

music: to produce a bouncy, uneven rhythm

lyödä kierre

cricket: to make the ball move sideways in its trajectory

ohnat se

boxing: to move one's arm in a punching motion

pyöräyttää

dancing: to turn around in a small circle with one's partner

From Middle English swyngen, from Old English swingan, from Proto-West Germanic *swingan, from Proto-Germanic *swinganą (compare Low German swingen, German schwingen, Dutch zwingen, Swedish svinga), from Proto-Indo-European *swenk-, *sweng- (compare Scottish Gaelic seang (“thin”)). Related to swink.


swing

He worked tirelessly to improve his golf swing.

Door swing indicates direction the door opens.

the swing of a pendulum

Improve your golf swing by taking your mate to the driving range. If you're good, you can show off and give her some tips. If you stink, play it for laughs.

2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 135:

The sweep or compass of a swinging body.

A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing.

To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

A hanging seat that can swing back and forth, in a children's playground, for acrobats in a circus, or on a porch for relaxing.

An energetic and acrobatic late-1930s partner-based dance style, also known as jitterbug and lindy-hop.

It makes no diff'rence / if it's sweet or hot. / Just give that rhythm / ev'rything you've got! / It don't mean a thing / if it ain't got that swing.

1931, “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”, Irving Mills (lyrics), Duke Ellington (music), performed by Ivie Anderson with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra, Brunswick, catalog number 6265:

(music) The genre of music associated with this dance style.

Miss Pole came round with a swing to as vehement a belief in the sorrowful tale as she had been sceptical before […]

The amount of change towards or away from something.

The polls showed a wide swing to Labour.

(politics) In an election, the increase or decrease in the number of votes for opposition parties compared with votes for the incumbent party.

(cricket) Sideways movement of the ball as it flies through the air.

Capacity of a turning lathe, as determined by the diameter of the largest object that can be turned in it.

In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.

A basic dance step in which a pair link hands and turn round together in a circle.

Jesus' finishing has been one of the main concerns - since the start of last season the 23-year-old has underperformed his Premier League expected goals tally by 6.97goals ^([sic]) (in short, he has scored seven fewer goals than would be expected from the chances presented to him).
In contrast, Haaland is overperforming by 6.83 goals since joining Dortmund, which is almost a 14-goal swing between the pair.

2021 February 4, Raj Chohan, “Erling Braut Haaland: Would Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea suit striker best?”, in BBC Sport:

The maximum amount of change that has occurred or can occur; the sum of the maximum changes in any direction.

Take thy swing.

1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Tenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle on the full swing of his genius.

1788, Edmund Burke, speech in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings:

(obsolete) Free course; unrestrained liberty.

Influence or power of anything put in motion.

(boxing) A type of hook with the arm more extended.

en-noun

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

kierre

sideways movement of a cricket ball as it flies through the air