swoon
Americanverb (used without object)
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swoons,
present (3rd person singular)
-
swooned,
past participle, past
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swooning
present participle
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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
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a literary word for faint
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to become ecstatic
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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swoonsimple
-
swoonssimple
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have swoonedperfect
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has swoonedperfect
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am swooningprogressive
-
are swooningprogressive
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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:
So is February, when the 22% swoon of 1966 started—and the pandemic panic of 2020.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Some spot Franklin and Nigel and smile and swoon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
And even though levels of leverage in certain corners of the market have ebbed from their peak levels seen shortly before July’s artificial-intelligence swoon, risks remain.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 30, 2026
Investors aren’t bracing for some shocking development that would cause a market swoon, but they’re unusually concerned about some specific stocks and sectors, according to Citadel Securities strategist Scott Rubner.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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
When fear is rising, traders are typically more likely to pay up for options to protect their portfolios, meaning the VIX tends to spike when the market swoons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
Everybody swoons when they put four and five on weaker teams.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2025
On top of all that, swoons for the Samantha Jones of it all – an amuse bouche successfully served that's bound to create issues to surmount down the road.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2023
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
“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
Some traders have said the drop in bitcoin may be forcing some other selling in the traditional markets, which swooned this week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 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
And with that, I swooned inside, caught off balance by this latest revelation of love, wondering how such a remarkable person as Harold could think I was extraordinary.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
The crowd at the Indio festival, for instance, went wild for the puppets swooning to Ben Platt’s cover of Addison Rae’s hit tune “Diet Pepsi.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
His earliest musical influences were the swooning Motown singers of the ‘50s and ‘60s, including Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
Were this another sport—football, basketball, baseball—they’d be swooning over Alcaraz as an all timer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 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
The birds were untouched by the fire but swooning from the smoke.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
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.
