swim Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the act of swimming
    swimming.
    • it was the swimming they enjoyed most": "they took a short swim in the pool
  2. verb travel through water
    • We had to swim for 20 minutes to reach the shore
    • a big fish was swimming in the tank
  3. verb be afloat either on or below a liquid surface and not sink to the bottom
    float.
  4. verb be dizzy or giddy
    • my brain is swimming after the bottle of champagne
  5. verb be covered with or submerged in a liquid
    drown.
    • the meat was swimming in a fatty gravy
  6. verb move as if gliding through water
    • this snake swims through the soil where it lives

WordNet

Swim intransitive verb
Etymology
AS. swimman; akin to D. zwemmen, OHG. swimman, G. schwimmen, Icel. svimma, Dan. swömme, Sw. simma. Cf. Sound an air bladder, a strait.
Wordforms
imperfect Swam or Swum ; past participle Swum; present participle & verbal noun Swimming
Definitions
  1. To be supported by water or other fluid; not to sink; to float; as, any substance will swim, whose specific gravity is less than that of the fluid in which it is immersed.
  2. To move progressively in water by means of strokes with the hands and feet, or the fins or the tail.
    Leap in with me into this angry flood, And swim to yonder point. Shak.
  3. To be overflowed or drenched. Ps. vi. 6.
    Sudden the ditches swell, the meadows swim. Thomson.
  4. Fig.: To be as if borne or floating in a fluid.
    [They] now swim in joy. Milton.
  5. To be filled with swimming animals. Obs.
    [Streams] that swim full of small fishes. Chaucer.
Swim transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To pass or move over or on by swimming; as, to swim a stream.
    Sometimes he thought to swim the stormy main. Dryden.
  2. To cause or compel to swim; to make to float; as, to swim a horse across a river.
  3. To immerse in water that the lighter parts may float; as, to swim wheat in order to select seed.
Swim noun
Definitions
  1. The act of swimming; a gliding motion, like that of one swimming. B. Jonson.
  2. The sound, or air bladder, of a fish.
  3. A part of a stream much frequented by fish. Eng.
Swim intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. swime dizziness, vertigo, AS. swima; akin to D. zwijm, Icel. svimi dizziness, svina to subside, svia to abate, G. schwindel dizziness, schwinden to disappear, to dwindle, OHG. swinan to dwindle. Cf. Squemish, Swindler.
Definitions
  1. To be dizzy; to have an unsteady or reeling sensation; as, the head swims.

Webster 1913