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swink

American  
[swingk] / swɪŋk /

verb (used without object)

swank, swonk, swonken, swinking
  1. labor; toil.


swink British  
/ swɪŋk /

verb

  1. (intr) to toil or drudge

"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

noun

  1. toil or drudgery

"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

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

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

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

It is no wonder though men swink in timber working, and in the wealthy Giver who wields both these temporary cottages and eternal homes.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 1 by Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle

Organized around what Ferrari deems a “dual-cockpit layout,” the swank, future-curious cabin design imagines driver and passenger bonding over the 10.25-inch central touch-screen display.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 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

There's nothing swank about it, but there's a line out the door even though it's only seven.

From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan

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

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

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

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