swinge
1 Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of swinge1
1250–1300; Middle English swengen to shake, smite, Old English swengan, causative of swingan to swing, or denominative derivative of Old English sweng a blow
Origin of swinge2
First recorded in 1580–90; obscurely akin to singe
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.
See Examples For:
But Starr’s or Ignoramus’s may not give Those Swearers longer swinge by Oaths to live.
From Anti-Achitophel (1682) Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden by Jones, Harold Whitmore
He must swinge them, like it or not!
From Sophia A Romance by Weyman, Stanley John
Sirrah, knave, I have a mind to swinge you!
From Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini by Moses, Montrose Jonas
"The Secretary promises me to swinge him," he wrote in 1711; "I must make that rogue an example for a warning to others."
From The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 by Aitken, George A.
Examples are: the double negative with ne; eyen, lenger, doen, ycladd, harrowd, purchas, raught, seely, stowre, swinge, owch, and withouten.
From Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Spenser, Edmund
Fafà Picault swinged in a cross from wide left, Whitecaps goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau was unable to corral it after a deflection off defender Bruno Gaspar and Rodríguez smashed home the putback.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2021
Haste, for the holy Virgin’s love, or I shall be well swinged when she cometh home!”
From The Well in the Desert An Old Legend of the House of Arundel by Irwin, M. (Madelaine)
If it had not been i’ the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me.
From The Merry Wives of Windsor The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] by Glover, John, librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge
Jumbo now came to the plate, and swinged at the ball so violently that one might have thought he was trying to lift Sawed-Off bodily from first base to second.
From The Dozen from Lakerim by Hughes, Rupert
Now will he be swinged for reading my letter,—an unmannerly slave, that will thrust himself into secrets!
From Two Gentlemen of Verona The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] by Clark, William George
At the same time, he has been criticised for swingeing job cuts as he tries to restore order to the club's finances.
From Barron's ● Jan. 5, 2026
The most swingeing, the Caesar Act, has been suspended and could be repealed by the US Congress in the new year.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2025
The public market imposes a fairly swingeing discount on inorganic growth.
From The Verge ● Mar. 8, 2022
Police minister Bryan Kramer used the occasion of PNG’s independence anniversary to launch a swingeing attack on the police force, saying its endemic corruption would take years, even a generation, to eradicate.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 17, 2020
There is nothing that I do better remember, for he laughed heartily when his fellow-members of the aforesaid judicial chamber spoiled their caps in swingeing of his shoulders.
From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 by Motteux, Peter Anthony
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.
