swim.
To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means.
Meaning & usage
To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means.
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
To move around freely because of excess space.
To traverse (a specific body of water, or a specific distance) by swimming; or, to use 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.
To cause to swim.
to swim a horse across a river
Half of the guinea pigs were swum daily.
To float.
sink or swim
There's oil swimming on the water.
To be overflowed or drenched.
To immerse in water to make the lighter parts float.
to swim wheat in order to select seed
To test (a suspected witch) by throwing into a river; those who floated rather than sinking were deemed to be witches.
To glide along with a waving motion.
To have a great quantity of something.
You should be swimming in money after this job.
Where this word comes from
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”).
An act or instance of swimming.
I'm going for a swim.
She had a quick swim in the bay.
The sound, or air bladder, of a fish.
A part of a stream much frequented by fish.
A dance or dance move of the 1960s in which the arms are moved in imitation of various swimming strokes, such as freestyle, breaststroke, etc.
The flow of events; being in the swim of things.
Where this word comes from
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”).
A dizziness; swoon.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English swime, sweme, swaime (“a dizziness, swoon, trance”), from Old English swīma (“a swoon, swimming in the head”). Cognate with Swedish svimma (“to swoon, faint”) and Danish svime (“to swoon, faint”) / Danish besvime (“to swoon, faint”).
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.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English swime, sweme, swaime (“a dizziness, swoon, trance”), from Old English swīma (“a swoon, swimming in the head”). Cognate with Swedish svimma (“to swoon, faint”) and Danish svime (“to swoon, faint”) / Danish besvime (“to swoon, faint”).
Abbreviation of someone who isn't me, used as a way to avoid self-designation or self-incrimination, especially in online drug forums.
Where this word comes from
Abbreviation of someone who isn't me.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.