swan

¹ American  

[swon] / swɒn /

noun

1. any of several large, stately aquatic birds of the subfamily Anserinae, having a long, slender neck and usually pure-white plumage in the adult.

2. a person or thing of unusual beauty, excellence, purity, or the like.

3. Literary. a person who sings sweetly or a poet.

4. Astronomy. Swan, the constellation Cygnus.

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swan ² American  

[swon] / swɒn /

verb (used without object)

1. Midland and Southern U.S. Older Use. to swear or declare (used withI ).

   Well, I swan, I never expected to see you here!

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Swan ³ American  

[swon] / swɒn /

noun

1. Sir Joseph Wilson, 1828–1914, British chemist, electrical engineer, and inventor.

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swan ¹ British  

/ swɒn /

noun

1. any large aquatic bird of the genera Cygnus and Coscoroba, having a long neck and usually a white plumage: family Anatidae, order Anseriformes

2. rare

   1. a poet

   2. ( capital when part of a title or epithet )

      the Swan of Avon (Shakespeare)

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verb

1. informal (intr; usually foll by around or about) to wander idly

Swan ² British  

/ swɒn /

noun

1. a river in SW Western Australia, rising as the Avon northeast of Narrogin and flowing northwest and west to the Indian Ocean below Perth. Length: about 240 km (150 miles)

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Swan ³ British  

/ swɒn /

noun

1. Sir Joseph Wilson. 1828–1914, English physicist and chemist, who developed the incandescent electric light (1880) independently of Edison

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Other Word Forms

• swanlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of swan¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with German Schwan, Old Norse svanr

Origin of swan²

1775–85, probably continuing dial. (N England) I s'wan, shortening of I shall warrant

Example Sentences

That meant the windmill on the Spaarne, or swans on the canal.

From Literature

Almost everything except for bonds – stocks, interest rates, credit, gold and the U.S. dollar – is having “very normal white swan types of moves.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Almost everything else – stocks, interest rates, credit, gold and the U.S. dollar – is having “very normal white swan types of moves.”

From MarketWatch

"I hate any kind of pollution to be honest, there's blue and green algae here, there's bird flu, ducks and swans dying."

From BBC

In Dawlish, Devon, two black swan nests and 10 eggs were washed away after consecutive January storms brought torrential rain and caused the brook to breach its banks.

From BBC