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Synonyms

in the swim

Idioms  

  1. Actively participating, in the thick of things, as in He was new in town, but he soon got in the swim at school. This expression alludes to the fishing term for a large number of fish in one area, a so-called swim. [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Ashley Stoneman and Kelsey Jessup both took part in the swim at Budleigh Salterton.

From BBC • Dec. 26, 2025

Around 200 people are expected to participate in the swim, Molner said, despite the skepticism her organization encountered when they first announced the event.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 5, 2024

In the next step, they then looked for instances of order in the swim trajectories.

From Science Daily • Mar. 25, 2024

Loyola senior Rex Maurer broke the national record in the 500-meter freestyle Friday, dominating the field at the Southern Section in the swim finals.

From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2023

A man who when he falls in the soup thinks of himself as being in the swim.

From The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days. by Hubbard, Elbert

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.