- a variation of swat.
swot
1 Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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a student who studies assiduously, especially to the exclusion of other activities or interests; grind.
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hard study or hard work; concentrated effort.
verb
noun
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Also called: swotter. a person who works or studies hard
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hard work or grind
abbreviation
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of swot
First recorded in 1840–50; dialectal variant of sweat
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:
"Geopolitics doesn’t wait for you to swot up on your brief."
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2024
She calls herself a swot, which translates roughly to an overenthusiastic student.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2019
I wasn’t a swot exactly, but I loved to learn and was never without a book.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 9, 2019
For all his brains and later academic renown, he was no swot: he started cramming five days before finals, from an undemanding textbook nicknamed “Economics for the Half-witted Child”.
From Economist ● Aug. 13, 2015
"I didn't intend to come round, and I'm going back to swot."
From In Accordance with the Evidence by Onions, Oliver [pseud.]
However, she added, a long-awaited new satellite known to researchers as SWOT, is poised to make these kinds of ocean phenomena vastly easier to observe.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 6, 2024
The rocket's payload, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite, or SWOT, incorporates advanced microwave radar technology to collect high-definition measurements of oceans, lakes, reservoirs and rivers over 90% of the globe.
From Reuters ● Dec. 16, 2022
The data gathered by SWOT, he said, will “heavily advance our understanding of not just climate change, but also climate variability, and how that affects droughts and things like monsoons.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2022
And besides, some critics add, there is little useful to learn from the results, since it is parents alone that encourage swots.
From Economist ● Dec. 6, 2016
Two current swots offer little fun, less profit.
From Time Magazine Archive
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I have often heard it said:—"I never could do swot well, Sir;" and "these dull fellows, the swots, can talk of nothing but triangles and equations."
From Notes and Queries, Number 23, April 6, 1850 by Various
"That's the worst of clever little swots," said McTurk, addressing the gas.
From Stalky & Co. by Kipling, Rudyard
This was a God-send to the "gentlemen cadets," wishing to achieve a notoriety as wits and slangsters; and mathematics generally ever after became swot, and mathematicians swots.
From Notes and Queries, Number 23, April 6, 1850 by Various
Wearing a grey hoodie sweatshirt with 'Fear' written upside down Malinin symbolically swotted away comments which represented the negative impact of social media.
From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026
“I’m a Liberal Democrat,” replies Mr Scragg—which Mr Johnson, who was supposed to have swotted up on this winnable Lib Dem marginal on the train, should have known.
From Economist ● Apr. 23, 2015
For my ancient language I swotted up Latin in six weeks and squeaked through the test, which was written-only.
From Time ● Nov. 28, 2012
Could it be that he has simply swotted his way to sophistication in a bid to please his wife?
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2011
Since you've swotted up into the Upper Sixth, you've turned into a very good imitation of the prigs you associate with.
From Sinister Street, vol. 1 by MacKenzie, Compton
The ginger tom officially belongs to the deputy librarian at the Marshall Library of Economics, and "tea with Jasper" events have proved popular with those wanting a break from swotting.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2018
"I'm more interested in swotting up on what's happening in the Middle East rather than Top Gear."
From BBC ● May 4, 2015
Yet Hodgson has not been swotting up a great deal on the opposition.
From The Guardian ● May 29, 2014
She'd had two great years appearing in plays, and didn't want to spoil her memories with a year of swotting.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 11, 2010
"I'm half glad that it isn't," Bob said; "I don't see how a fellow could go back to swotting over books after being really alive for nearly five years."
From Back to Billabong by Bruce, Mary Grant
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.