swing

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: OE. swingen, AS. swingan to scourge, to fly, to flutter; akin to G. schwingen to winnow, to swingle, oscillate, sich schwingen to leap, to soar, OHG. swingan to throw, to scourge, to soar, Sw. svinga to swing, to whirl, Dan. svinge. Cf. Swagger, Sway, Swinge, Swink.

1. To move to and fro, as a body suspended in the air; to wave; to vibrate; to oscillate.

I tried if a pendulum would swing faster, or continue swinging longer, in case of exsuction of the air.— Robert Boyle

2. To sway or move from one side or direction to another; as, the door swung open.

3. To use a swing; as, a boy swings for exercise or pleasure. See Swing, noun, 3.

4. Nautical To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor; as, a ship swings with the tide.

5. To be hanged. colloquial Daniel Webster

To swing round the circle, to make a complete circuit. colloquial

He had swung round the circle of theories and systems in which his age abounded, without finding relief.— Alexander Viets Griswold Allen

1. To cause to swing or vibrate; to cause to move backward and forward, or from one side to the other.

He swings his tail, and swiftly turns his round.— John Dryden

They get on ropes, as you must have seen the children, and are swung by their men visitants.— The Spectator

2. To give a circular movement to; to whirl; to brandish; as, to swing a sword; to swing a club; hence, colloquially, to manage; as, to swing a business.

3. Machinery To admit or turn (anything) for the purpose of shaping it; — said of a lathe; as, the lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter.

To swing a door, gate, etc. Carpentry, to put it on hinges so that it can swing or turn.

1. The act of swinging; a waving, oscillating, or vibratory motion of a hanging or pivoted object; oscillation; as, the swing of a pendulum.

2. Swaying motion from one side or direction to the other; as, some men walk with a swing.

3. A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing; especially, an apparatus for recreation by swinging, commonly consisting of a rope, the two ends of which are attached overhead, as to the bough of a tree, a seat being placed in the loop at the bottom; also, any contrivance by which a similar motion is produced for amusement or exercise.

4. Influence of power of a body put in swaying motion.

The ram that batters down the wall, For the great swing and rudeness of his poise, They place before his hand that made the engine.— William Shakespeare

5. Capacity of a turning lathe, as determined by the diameter of the largest object that can be turned in it.

6. Free course; unrestrained liberty or license; tendency. “Take thy swing.” John Dryden

To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle to the full swing of his genius.— Edmund Burke

Full swing. See under Full. — Swing beam Railway Mach., a crosspiece sustaining the car body, and so suspended from the framing of a truck that it may have an independent lateral motion. — Swing bridge, a form of drawbridge which swings horizontally, as on a vertical pivot. — Swing plow, or Swing plough. (a) A plow without a fore wheel under the beam. (b) A reversible or sidehill plow. — Swing wheel. (a) The scape-wheel in a clock, which drives the pendulum. (b) The balance of a watch.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

<programming> Java's graphical user interface (GUI) package that provides a large collection of widgets (buttons, labels, lists etc.) that behave similarly on different platforms. Swing features "pluggable look & feel", allowing the program to look like a Windows, Motif or Macintosh) application. It is implemented using the {Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture and makes extensive use of nested "containers" to control the handling of events such as keystrokes.

(http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/javax/swing/package-summary.html).

(2007-05-30)