swinge

English

Etymology

From Middle English swengen (“to strike”), from Old English swenġan (“to dash, strike; to cause to swing”), from Proto-West Germanic *swangijan (“to cause to swing”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swɪnd͡ʒ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndʒ

Verb

swinge (third-person singular simple present swinges, present participle swinging or swingeing, simple past and past participle swinged)

1. (obsolete) To singe.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The scorching flame fore swinged all his face

2. (archaic) To move like a lash; to lash.
   • 1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 9:

     Th' old Dragon underground / In ſtraiter limits bound, / Not half ſo far caſts his uſurped ſvvay, / And vvrath to ſee his Kingdom fail, / Svvindges the ſcaly Horrour of his foulded tail.

3. (archaic) To strike hard.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 80, column 2:

     For certaine words he ſpake againſt your Grace / In your retirment, I had ſwing'd him ſoundly.

   • 1686 (first performance), A[phra] Behn, The Luckey Chance, or An Alderman’s Bargain. A Comedy. […], London: […] R. H[olt], for W. Canning, […], published 1687, →OCLC, Act III, scene [iv], page 37:

     Sir Fee[ble]. 'Tis—Jealouſie, the old VVorm that bites— [Aſide] VVho is it you ſuſpect? / Sir Cau[tious]. Alas I knovv not vvhom to ſuſpect, I vvou'd I did; but if you cou'd diſcover him—I vvou'd ſo ſvvinge him.—

   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden Jun., transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fourteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 279, line 79:

     And ſwinges his own Vices in his Son.

4. (obsolete) To chastise; to beat.
   • a. 1575, unknown author, The Marriage of Wit and Wisdom:

     O, the passion of God, so I shall be swinged. / So, my bones shall be bangedǃ / The porridge pot is stolenː what, Lob, say, / Come away, and be hangedǃ

Derived terms

• beswinge
• swingeing

Noun

swinge (plural swinges)

1. (archaic) A swinging blow.
2. (obsolete) Power; sway; influence.

Anagrams

• Winges, sewing, winges

Middle English

Noun

swinge

1. Alternative form of swynge