swink
See also: Swink
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English swink, from Old English swinc (“toil, work, effort; hardship; the produce of labour”).
Noun
swink (plural swinks)
- (archaic) toil, work, drudgery
- 1963, Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr. Enderby:
- Dead on this homecoming cue Jack came home, his hands sheerfree of salesman’s swink, ready for Enderby.
- 1963, Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr. Enderby:
Etymology 2
From Middle English swinken, from Old English swincan (“to labour, work at, strive, struggle; be in trouble; languish”), from Proto-Germanic *swinkaną (“to swing, bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweng-, *swenk- (“to bend, swing, swivel”). Cognate with Old Norse svinka (“to work”). Related to swing.
Verb
swink (third-person singular simple present swinks, present participle swinking, simple past swank or swonk or swinkt or swinked, past participle swunk or swunken or swonken or swinkt or swinked)
- (archaic, intransitive) to labour, to work hard
- 14th century, William Langland, Piers Plowman
- Heremites on an heep · with hoked staues,
- Wenten to Walsyngham · and here wenches after;
- Grete lobyes and longe · that loth were to swynke,
- Clotheden hem in copis · to be knowen fram othere;
- And shopen hem heremites · here ese to haue.
- Spenser
- for which men swink and sweat incessantly
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
- And on this board were frightful swords and knives that are made in a great cavern by swinking demons out of white flames that they fix in the horns of buffalos and stags that there abound marvellously.
- 14th century, William Langland, Piers Plowman
- (archaic, transitive) To cause to toil or drudge; to tire or exhaust with labor.
- Milton
- And the swinked hedger at his supper sat.
- Milton
Derived terms
References
- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=swink
- http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=swink
Anagrams
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪŋk
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
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- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
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- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
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- English class 3 strong verbs