swim

From Middle English swimmen, from Old English swimman (“to swim, float”) (class III strong verb; past tense swamm, past participle geswummen), from Proto-Germanic *swimmaną (“to swoon, lose consciousness, swim”), from Proto-Indo-European *swem(bʰ)- (“to be unsteady, move, swim”). Cognate with Scots sweem, soom (“to swim”), Saterland Frisian swimme (“to swim”), West Frisian swimme (“to swim, float”), Dutch zwemmen (“to swim”), German schwimmen (“to swim”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish svømme (“to swim”), Swedish simma (“to swim”), Norwegian Nynorsk symja (“to swim”).

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /swɪm/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪm

swim (third-person singular simple present swims, present participle swimming, simple past swam or (archaic) swum, past participle swum)

1. (intransitive) To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means.
   • 1720, Daniel Defoe, Captain Singleton, London: J. Brotherton, p. 87,

     We were now all upon a Level, as to our travelling; being unshipp’d, for our Bark would swim no farther, and she was too heavy to carry on our Backs […]

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎:

     He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.

2. (intransitive) To become immersed in, or as if in, or flooded with, or as if with, a liquid

   swimming in self-pity.

   a bare few bits of meat swimming in watery sauce.

3. (transitive) To traverse (a specific body of water, or a specific distance) by swimming; or, to utilize a specific swimming stroke; or, to compete in a specific swimming event.

   For exercise, we like to swim laps around the pool.

   I want to swim the 200-yard breaststroke in the finals.

   • Dryden

     Sometimes he thought to swim the stormy main.

4. (transitive, uncommon) To cause to swim.

   to swim a horse across a river

   Half of the guinea pigs were swum daily.

5. (intransitive, archaic) To float.

   sink or swim

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act V, Scene 1,

     Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!

     The storm is up and all is on the hazard.

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, 2 Kings 6:6,

     And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.

6. (intransitive) To be overflowed or drenched.
   • Psalm VI:6 (KJV)

     I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

   • Thomson

     Sudden the ditches swell, the meadows swim.

7. (transitive) To immerse in water to make the lighter parts float.

   to swim wheat in order to select seed

8. (transitive, historical) To test (a suspected witch) by throwing into a river; those who floated rather than sinking were deemed to be witches.

• In Late Middle English and Early Modern English, the present participle form swimmand still sometimes occurred in Midlands and Northern dialects, for exampleː
  • The water to nourish the fish swimmand. (The Towneley plays)
  • Their young child Troiane, as swift as dolphin fish, swimmand away. (1513, Gavin Douglas, Virgil's Aeneid)

• sink or swim
• swim like a fish
• swimmer
• swimsuit

swim (plural swims)

1. An act or instance of swimming.

   I'm going for a swim.

2. The sound, or air bladder, of a fish.
3. (Britain) A part of a stream much frequented by fish.
4. A dance move of the 1960s in which the arms are moved in a freestyle swimming manner.

• in the swim

From Middle English swime, sweme, swaime (“a dizziness, swoon, trance”), from Old English swima (“a swoon, swimming in the head”).

swim (plural swims)

1. A dizziness; swoon.

swim (third-person singular simple present swims, present participle swimming, simple past swam or (archaic) swum, past participle swum)

1. (intransitive) To be dizzy or vertiginous; have a giddy sensation; to have, or appear to have, a whirling motion.

   My head was swimming after drinking two bottles of cheap wine.

Abbreviation of someone who isn't me.

swim (plural not attested)

1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of someone who isn't me. used as a way to avoid self-designation or self-incrimination, especially in online drug forums

• swim on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• friend of mine

• swim at OneLook Dictionary Search