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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. Swam r 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To move progressively in water by means of strokes with the hands and feet, or the fins or the tail. [ 1913 Webster ]

Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To be overflowed or drenched. Ps. vi. 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sudden the ditches swell, the meadows swim. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Fig.: To be as if borne or floating in a fluid. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ They ] now swim in joy. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To be filled with swimming animals. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Streams ] that swim full of small fishes. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To pass or move over or on by swimming; as, to swim a stream. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sometimes he thought to swim the stormy main. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cause or compel to swim; to make to float; as, to swim a horse across a river. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To immerse in water that the lighter parts may float; as, to swim wheat in order to select seed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Etymol. uncertain. ] A moaning or sighing sound or noise; a sough. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who swims. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Far.) A protuberance on the leg of a horse. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) A swimming bird; one of the natatores. [ 1913 Webster ]

Little swimmer (Zool.), a phalarope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) One of a series of flat, fringed, and usually bilobed, appendages, of which several pairs occur on the abdominal somites of many crustaceans. They are used as fins in swimming. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ From Swim to be dizzy. ] Being in a state of vertigo or dizziness; as, a swimming brain. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Vertigo; dizziness; as, a swimming in the head. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]