outswim

English

Etymology

From out- +‎ swim.

Verb

outswim (third-person singular simple present outswims, present participle outswimming, simple past outswam, past participle outswum)

1. (transitive) To swim faster than.

   Hypernym: outpace

   • 2002 January 11, Chuck Shepherd, “News of the Weird”, in Chicago Reader‎^[1]:

     Last July in Berkeley, California, a 38-year-old man under the influence of alcohol drowned after a 50-year-old man offered to give him his car if the younger man could outswim him in San Francisco Bay....That same month a 45-year-old man drowned off Cabo San Lucas, at the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico, while trying to surf the ten-foot waves caused by Hurricane Juliette....

   • 1917, Florence Partello Stuart, The Adventures of Piang the Moro Jungle Boy‎^[2]:

     He was not afraid now; tortoises do not fight unless attacked, and the boy could easily outswim any of the clumsy creatures.

   • 1904, Edwin Arnold, Indian Poetry‎^[3]:

     Fish! that didst outswim the flood; Tortoise! whereon earth hath stood; Boar! who with thy tush held'st high The world, that mortals might not die; Lion! who hast giants torn; Dwarf! who laugh'dst a king to scorn; Sole Subduer of the Dreaded!

   • 1894, Edward S. Ellis, Brave Tom‎^[4]:

     The general belief was that this lad, through some strange mischance, had also fallen into the river, a belief which was quickly dispelled by another boy, no doubt his playmate, calling out,-- "That's my chum, Tom, and you needn't be afraid of him; he can outswim a duck and a goose and a fish all together; he jumped over to save that little girl, seeing as all you big men was afraid--and you can just bet he'll do it too."

   • 1869, John Ruskin, The Queen of the Air‎^[5]:

     * It scarcely breathes with its one lung (the other shriveled and abortive); it is passive to the sun and shade, and is cold or hot like a stone; yet "it can outclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle the athlete, and crush the tiger."

   • 1848, Edward Howard, Rattlin the Reefer‎^[6]:

     Master Frank was two or three years my senior, and before he went to sea, not going to the same school as myself, we got together only during the vacations; when, notwithstanding my prowess, he would fag me desperately at cricket, outswim me on the lake and out-cap me at making Latin verses.