Link Centre Dictionary

swim

UK/sʋɪm/ US/swɪm/ common uk
verb (2) noun (1)

verb

1.

travel through water

  • “We had to swim for 20 minutes to reach the shore”
  • “a big fish was swimming in the tank”
2.

be afloat; stay on a liquid surface; not sink

Synonyms
Antonyms

noun

1.

the act of swimming

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English swymmen, from Old English swimman (“to swim, float”) (class III strong verb; past tense swamm, past participle geswummen), from Proto-West Germanic *swimman, from Proto-Germanic *swimmaną (“to swim”), from Proto-Indo-European *swem(bʰ)- (“to be unsteady, move, swim”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian sweem, swome, swume, swumi, swumme, swääm (“to swim”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian swimme (“to swim”), Dutch zwemmen (“to swim”), German schwimmen (“to swim”), Limburgish schwämme, zwömme (“to swim”), Low German swimmen (“to swim”), Luxembourgish schwammen (“to swim”), Vilamovian švymma, śwyma, śwymma (“to swim”), Yiddish שווימען (shvimen, “to swim”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål svømme (“to swim”), Faroese svimja (“to swim”), Norn suma (“to swim”), Norwegian Nynorsk svemja, svemje, svømma, svømme, symja, symje (“to swim”), Swedish simma (“to swim”).

Phrases

  • can a duck swim
  • do fish swim
  • faster than a minnow can swim a dipper
  • I can't swim
  • in the swim
  • in the swim of things
  • polar bear swim
  • quicker than a minnow can swim a dipper
  • sink or swim
  • swim bladder
  • swim brief
  • swim briefs

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.