swoon
Americanverb (used without object)
-
swoons,
present (3rd person singular)
-
swooned,
past participle, past
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swooning
present participle
-
to faint; lose consciousness.
-
to enter a state of hysterical rapture or ecstasy.
The teenagers swooned at the sight of the singing star.
noun
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swoons
plural
verb
-
a literary word for faint
-
to become ecstatic
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
swoonsimple
-
swoonssimple
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have swoonedperfect
-
has swoonedperfect
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am swooningprogressive
-
are swooningprogressive
-
is swooningprogressive
-
have been swooningperfect progressive
-
has been swooningperfect progressive
Past
-
swoonedsimple
-
had swoonedperfect
-
was swooningprogressive
-
were swooningprogressive
-
had been swooningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of swoon
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English (verb) swo(w)nen “to faint,” originally as gerund swowening, swoghning “act of swooning,” ultimately continuing Old English -swōgan (in compounds) “to rush, overrun, choke”; Middle English (noun) partly derivative of the verb, partly extracted from in (a) swoune, on swoune, alteration of a swoune, aswoune “in a swoon,” as if equivalent to a a- 1 + swoon (noun), but probably continuing Old English āswōgen, past participle of āswōgan “to overcome” ( a- 3 ), or geswōgen (past participle) “senseless, dead”
Explanation
To swoon is to faint, due to lack of blood to the brain. Illness, fear, stress, and even happiness can cause people to swoon. Swoon is an old-fashioned way to say "pass out": back in the day, ladies in corsets were always swooning at the slightest stress or smallest nod from a handsome man. Although this word technically means "to faint," today it has more of a positive connotation and isn't used so literally — people say they swoon when they encounter something so wonderful it makes them dizzy with joy. Chocolate cupcakes, the perfect dress, or a stellar home run could make you swoon.
Vocabulary lists containing swoon
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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:
Some spot Franklin and Nigel and smile and swoon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
It could be for ordinary people’s portfolios during a big market swoon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
But investors may have found a way through the swoon that gripped stocks earlier this month.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
A summer swoon for tech stocks may be taking hold, as another bumpy ride looms Tuesday after South Korea’s red-hot stock market slumped 10%.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
They knew every character and every line and had learned how to swoon like aristocratic maidens.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
However, with strong earnings providing fundamental support, those swoons are likely to be the exception rather than the norm.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
The dreaded Hindenburg Omen, a technical indicator that has preceded stock market swoons, flashed several times in January and February.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
Everybody swoons when they put four and five on weaker teams.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2025
“Mommy, you are the best cook in the world,” she swoons, kissing up to my wife.
From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2024
Fortunately the man swoons and Kropp is able to help us.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
Within about 10 days the S&P 500 had shed nearly 14% as stocks swooned following the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement at the start of April.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Those techniques were behind the “DeepSeek shock” in January 2025, when Liang’s company released a powerful but inexpensive new open-source model and U.S. stocks briefly swooned at the unexpected rise of Chinese competition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
“Spartacus: Blood and Sand” arrived smack in the middle of the most prestigious stretch of television’s modern Golden Age, when audiences swooned over “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men.”
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2025
None of this was good news, but if investors were on board with the long-term prospects of the neocloud, the stock wouldn’t have swooned so hard.
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2025
On his hack porch, we talked of a thousand things and laughed and swooned in pipesmoke and ate pizza.
From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
These clips live on as fodder for collective swooning and fan-made montages.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
If you can’t remember what it was like to try to tiptoe while swooning, your heart barely able to stay in your chest, you were never a teenager.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
It’s been the favorite since sending critics and film fans swooning upon release in September.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
When Bowie briefly takes Connelly’s hand for the briefest one-two-three, one-two-three, imagining millions of hearts swooning in concert isn’t hard to do.
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026
She had one hand clutched to her shoulder, holding the swooning dæmon in place.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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.
