swing for the fences
English
Alternative forms
- swing for the fence
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
swing for the fences (third-person singular simple present swings for the fences, present participle swinging for the fences, simple past and past participle swung for the fences)
- (US, baseball, softball) To swing at the ball as hard as possible, with the aim of getting a home run, increasing the chance of missing the ball.
- Don't swing for the fences unless it's an easy ball; be content with running part way.
- (US, idiomatic) To do something extremely ambitious, especially rashly.
- I'm not going to swing for the fences tomorrow, but I'm hoping my speech will be warmly received.
- 2022 September 27, Mark Landler, quoting Kenneth S. Rogoff, “Truss Takes a Bold Economic Gamble. Will It Sink Her Government?”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:
- “This is a very inexperienced government swinging for the fences in a situation where Labour is the strong favorite in the next election, if they don’t swing too far left,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard.
See also
- hit one out of the ballpark
- run for the roses
- shoot the moon