swinge

swinge

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swɪnd͡ʒ/

• Audio (RP)

  (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 960102938:

     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 606951673, page 9:

     Swindges 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 606515358, [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.

   • 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 80026745, line 79, page 279:

     And ſwinges his own Vices in his Son.

   • 1679, Aphra Behn, The Feigned Courtesans, in (The plays of) Aphra Behn, Oxford University press 2000, p.233. →ISBN

     Sir Feeble: Tis jelousy, the old worm that bites. [To Sir Cautious] Whom is it that you suspect.

     Sir Cautious: Alas I know not whom to suspect, I would I did; but if you discover him, I would swinge him.

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

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Middle English

Noun

swinge

1. Alternative form of swynge