swing-wing

[ swing-wing ]

/ ˈswɪŋˌwɪŋ /

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adjective

(of an airplane) having wings whose horizontal angle to the fuselage centerline can be adjusted fore and aft to optimize aerodynamic performance at widely differing speeds.

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Origin of swing-wing

First recorded in 1965–70

Words nearby swing-wing

swingover, swing shift, swing space, swing state, swingtree, swing-wing, swingy, swinish, swink, Swinnerton, swinney

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use swing-wing in a sentence

To borrow an old right-wing talking point, these people are angry no matter what we do.
Harry Shearer on The Dangerous Business of Satire|Lloyd Grove|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Asian-Americans are a group of persuadable swing voters, growing faster than any other group in America today.
Asian-Americans Are The New Florida|Tim Mak|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
There is, however, a separate wing of AQAP designed to inspire their followers to conduct attacks against the West.
U.S. Spies See Al Qaeda Fingerprints on Paris Massacre|Shane Harris, Nancy A. Youssef|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
He sometimes surmised that it was because he was too outspokenly identified with the diminished liberal wing of the party.
Ed Brooke: The Senate's Civil Rights Pioneer and Prophet of a Post-Racial America|John Avlon|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Limbaugh makes comments like this because his right-wing fans require a non–stop diet of race-baiting red meat.
Rush Limbaugh’s Fear of a Black James Bond|Dean Obeidallah|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Done, says he, why let fifty of our men advance, and flank them on each wing.
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801)|Daniel Defoe
His idea was that there would be ample time later to order a concentration on either wing or on the centre.
Napoleon's Marshals|R. P. Dunn-Pattison
Those soaring columns held up the very sky, and their foundations made the earth itself swing true.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
While a one-step was in full swing some would-be wag suddenly turned off all the lights.
Uncanny Tales|Various
As it was he had to press Nejdi into a fast gallop before he could clear the left wing of the advancing army.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy

British Dictionary definitions for swing-wing

swing-wing

adjective

of or relating to a variable-geometry aircraft

noun

such an aircraft
either wing of such an aircraft

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012