swizzle

swizzle

English

Etymology

Unknown etymology, 1813.[1] Original sense “alcoholic drink”, possibly a variant of switchel (“a drink of molasses and water, often mixed with rum”), attested 1790, itself of uncertain origin.[2] Possibly influenced by fizz.

In verb sense “to stir”, from swizzle stick (“stick for stirring alcoholic drinks”), itself attested 1859.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈswɪzəl/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪzəl

Noun

swizzle (countable and uncountable, plural swizzles)

1. Any of various kinds of alcoholic drink.
2. Alternative form of switchel (“drink based on water and vinegar”)

Derived terms

• swizzle stick

See also

• cocktail

Verb

swizzle (third-person singular simple present swizzles, present participle swizzling, simple past and past participle swizzled)

1. To stir or mix.

   She swizzled the milk into her coffee.

2. (computing) To permute bits, or elements of a vector.
3. (computing, programming, transitive) To convert portable symbols or positions to memory-dependent pointers during deserialization.
4. To drink; to swill.
   • 1958, Baynard Kendrick, Reservations for Death:

     I checked it all over after Mona got in, while you were swizzling beer in that saloon.

Antonyms

• (convert symbols to pointers): unswizzle

References

1. “swizzle”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
2. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “swizzle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.