swing

Meanings

Verb

• To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.
• To dance.
• To ride on a swing.
• To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wife-swapping.
• To hang from the gallows; to be punished by hanging, swing for something or someone; (often hyperbolic) to be severely punished.
• to move sideways in its trajectory.
• To fluctuate or change.
• To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave.
• To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election.
• To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially.
• 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.
• to make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.
• To move one's arm in a punching motion.
• In dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms.
• To admit or turn something for the purpose of shaping it; said of a lathe.
• To put (a door, gate, etc.) on hinges so that it can swing or turn.
• To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor.

Noun

• The manner in which something is swung.
• The sweep or compass of a swinging body.
• A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing.
• A hanging seat in a children's playground, for acrobats in a circus, or on a porch for relaxing.
• A dance style.
• The genre of music associated with this dance style.
• The amount of change towards or away from something.
• 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.
• Free course; unrestrained liberty.
• Influence or power of anything put in motion.
• A type of hook with the arm more extended.

Origin

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