swink
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of swink
before 900; Middle English swinken, Old English swincan; akin to swing 1
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:
I 'lowed to swink up my belly to fit my rations.'
From Time Magazine Archive
Her face was already smeared with swink juice, her mouth full and happy.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
Ess wasn’t near the swink bushes, or taking cover from the rain in the trees where the hens liked to sleep.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
Ben passed out bags and baskets, and then they marched off in a line—up past the dunes and the cabins, along the sandy path, past the swink bushes, into the prairie and along the creek.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
“I’ll git sollumcholic ef I don’t have a frolic, My head’ll git flabby an’ swink; I chaw de pine-bud, kaze I’m ’bout ter lose my cud An’ some nights I don’t sleep a wink!
From Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit by Joel Chandler Harris
Mr. Mulla subtly guides us to a sympathetic view of these rarified figures, in their swank and privileged world, caught out of time and defeated by vast historical forces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
EVANSTON, Ill.— Bryan and Kay Keenan just paid $2 million for a 1,600-square-foot apartment in The Mather, a swank retirement community here.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2025
“My comfort zone is being outside of my comfort zone,” León said from his shopping-bag-strewn suite at a swank Beverly Hills hotel in California, his girlfriend and team at his side.
From New York Times ● May 27, 2024
The press conference was held at the Dorchester’s swank Hotel Eden, located just off Rome’s Via Veneto.
From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2024
“They’re nice. But they only get you so far. Look at you. You got yourself a swank ship and a swank life.”
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
And he was an ensample to young men which should be fain, by hard swinking, to stuff their pates with as much high learning and occult lore as he had under his own bonnet.
From The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche And Child Life in Town and Country by A. R. (Alfred Richard) Allinson
I am swinking from dawn to night, while you are guzzling in an alestake.
From Sir Nigel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Through sleepless nights, Lady Ogram brooded over the contrast between her own exaltation and the hopeless level of the swinking multitude.
From Our Friend the Charlatan by George Gissing
Look far enough, and it means muscular toil, that swinking of the ruder man which supports all the complex structure of our life.
From The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft by George Gissing
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.
