Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Swim

Swim (swĭm), v. i. [imp. Swam or Swum; p. p. Swum; p. pr. & vb. n. Swimming.] [AS. swimman; akin to D. zwemmen, OHG. swimman, G. schwimmen, Icel. svimma, Dan. swömme, Sw. simma. Cf. Sound an air bladder, a strait.] 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, v. t. 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, n. 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 bladder, an air bladder of a fish. — To be in the swim, to be in a favored position; to be associated with others in active affairs. [Colloq.]

Swim, v. i. [OE. swime dizziness, vertigo, AS. swīma; akin to D. zwijm, Icel. svimi dizziness, svina to subside, svīa to abate, G. schwindel dizziness, schwinden to disappear, to dwindle, OHG. swīnan to dwindle. Cf. Squemish, Swindler.] To be dizzy; to have an unsteady or reeling sensation; as, the head swims.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.