Word: swing Part of Speech: verb Etymology: 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. Pronunciation: /ˈswɪŋ/ 1. To rotate about an off-centre fixed point. Labels: intransitive Example: The plant swung in the breeze. Example: 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. 2. To dance. Labels: intransitive 3. To ride on a swing. Labels: intransitive Example: The children laughed as they swung. 4. To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wifeswapping. Labels: intransitive Example: We find it difficult to meet couples our age, and often swing with single, straight men. We have rules: no married guys cheating on their wives, no one too young or too old, and no one who supports Trump. Example: My husband wasn’t so lucky and didn’t get to swing at all so was very disappointed. I’m desperate to do it all again but he’s not so keen. 5. To hang from the gallows; to be punished by hanging, swing for something or someone; (often hyperbolic) to be severely punished. Labels: intransitive Example: “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. 6. To move sideways in its trajectory. Labels: intransitive 7. (of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways in its trajectory. Labels: transitive 8. To fluctuate or change. Labels: intransitive Example: It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability. 9. To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave. Labels: transitive Example: He swung his sword as hard as he could. 10. To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election. Labels: transitive 11. To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially. Labels: slang, transitive Example: If it’s not too expensive, I think we can swing it. 12. 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. Labels: transitive 13. To move one's arm in a punching motion. Labels: intransitive, transitive 14. In dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms. Labels: transitive Example: "to swing one's partner", or simply "to swing" 15. To admit or turn something for the purpose of shaping it; said of a lathe. Labels: transitive Example: The lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter. 16. To put (a door, gate, etc.) on hinges so that it can swing or turn. Labels: transitive 17. To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor. Example: A ship swings with the tide. 18. To turn in a different direction. Example: 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. 19. To be sexually oriented. Example: swing both ways Example: "The Jumping Place," the second play we did, was directed by the author, and the whole cast of seven was straight. We don't ask when somebody comes here how they swing, only that they commit themselves to the principles of the theatre.