English

Verb

swag ‎(third-person singular simple present swags, present participle swagging, simple past and past participle swagged)

1. (intransitive and transitive) To sway; to cause to sway.
   • 2013, Odie Hawkins & Zola Salena-Hawkins, Kwanzaa for Conrad & the Survival Tango, ISBN 1481766325, page 104:

     Soap/soak the mop into the mop bucket, squeeze it out slightly, swag it back and forth across the piss stained concrete, mop it dry.

2. (intransitive) To droop; to sag.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir H. Wotton to this entry?)

   • Palsgrave

     I swag as a fat person's belly swaggeth as he goeth.

3. (transitive) To decorate (something) with loops of draped fabric.
   • 2009 January 29, Cathy Horyn, “In Paris, a Nod to Old Masters”, in New York Times:

     Dior wouldn’t be Dior without the swagged ball gown […] .

Noun

swag ‎(plural swags)

1. (window coverings) A loop of draped fabric.
   • 2005, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 438:

     He looked in bewilderment at number 24, the final house with its regalia of stucco swags and bows.

2. A low point or depression in land; especially, a place where water collects.
   • 1902, D. G. Simmons, "The Influence of Contaminated Water in the Development of Diseases", The American Practitioner and News, 34: 182.

     Whenever the muddy water would accumulate in the swag the water from the well in question would become muddy […] After the water in the swag had all disappeared through the sink-hole the well water would again become clear.

Derived terms

• swagger

Etymology 2

Clipping of swagger.

Noun

swag ‎(uncountable)

1. (slang) Style; fashionable appearance or manner.
   • 2009, Mark Anthony Archer, Exile, page 119

     Now this dude got swag, and he was pushing up on me but, it wasn't like we was kicking it or anything!

   • 2012, Jack Goldstein & ‎Jimmy Russell, 10 Amazing Gangnam Style Tips, ISBN 1782343571:

     They've got those dumb Kanye sunglasses that are $3 a pair at any **** old market, they've go the word SWAG airbrushed onto them; these kids are hanging around listening to crunk records, throwing around sayings like “Swag it out”, “Turn my swag on”, “Flip the swag switch and homie” and even “Get out your sweaty swag length and push it deep inside me”. Let me tell you something - if I ever see those kids out in Gangnam I'll be caving their sorry heads in with my swag bat, or I'll be making out with their swag girlfriend while they're too busy smoking crack behind a brick wall because that's how we do things in Gangnam, sucker.

Derived terms

• swag it out

Etymology 3

From 19th c. British thieves' slang.

Noun

swag ‎(plural swags)

1. (uncountable) The booty of a burglar or thief; boodle. [mid 19th c.]
   • 1838, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 19:

     “It′s all arranged about bringing off the swag, is it?” asked the Jew. Sikes nodded.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess:

     ‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘ […] They tell me there was a recognized swag market down here.’

   • 1971 November 22, Frank E. Emerson, “They Can Get It For You BETTER Than Wholesale”, New York Magazine, page 38

     He was on his way to call on other dealers to check out their swag and to see if he could trade away some of his leftover odds and ends.

2. (uncountable) Handouts, freebies, or giveaways, such as those handed out at conventions. [late 20th c.]
   • 2011, Mark Henry, Battle of the Network Zombies

     “Make sure to take some swag on your way out!” I called.
     He stooped a bit in mid-trot and snatched a small gold bag out of the basket at the door. The contents were mostly ****, a few drink tickets to the Well of Souls, VIP status at Convent, that sort of thing.

3. (countable, Australia, dated) The possessions of a bushman or itinerant worker, tied up in a blanket and carried over the shoulder, sometimes attached to a stick.
   • Lawson

     He tramped for years till the swag he bore seemed part of himself.

4. (countable, Australia, by extension) A small single-person tent, usually foldable into an integral backpack.
5. (countable, Australia, New Zealand) A large quantity (of something).
   • 2010 August 31, "Hockey: Black Sticks lose World Cup opener", The New Zealand Herald:

     New Zealand wasted a swag of chances to lose their opening women′s hockey World Cup match.

Verb

swag ‎(third-person singular simple present swags, present participle swagging, simple past and past participle swagged)

1. (Australia, transitive, intransitive) To travel on foot carrying a swag (possessions tied in a blanket). [From 1850s.]
   • 1880, James Coutts Crawford, Recollections of Travel in New Zealand and Australia, page 259,

     He told me that times had been bad at Invercargill, and that he had started for fresh pastures, had worked his passage up as mate in a small craft from the south, and, arriving in Port Underwood, had swagged his calico tent over the hill, and was now living in it, pitched in the manuka scrub.

   • 1976, Pembroke Arts Club, The Anglo-Welsh Review, page 158,

     That such a man was swagging in the Victoria Bush at the age of fifty-one requires explanation.

   • 2006, Inga Clendinnen, The History Question: Who Owns the Past?, Quarterly Essay, Issue 23, page 3,

     The plot is straightforward. A swagman is settling down by a billabong after a hard day′s swagging.

   • 2011, Penelope Debelle, Red Silk: The Life of Elliott Johnston QC, page 21,

     Over the Christmas of 1939, just three months after Britain and Australia had declared war on Germany, they went swagging together for a week and slept out under the stars in the Adelaide Hills, talking, walking and reading.

2. To transport stolen goods.
   • 1869, Frank Henderson, Six years in the prisons of England, page 225:

     Well, one night we were rather hard up and we wanted a good feed, so five or six of us set out, along with a great stout fellow, and we actually stole a whole sheep that was hanging at a butcher's door, and the big chap swagged it home.

Derived terms

• swaggie
• swagman
• swag it

Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

swag ‎(plural swags)

1. Alternative letter-case form of SWAG; a wild guess or ballpark estimate.

   I can take a swag at the answer, but it may not be right.

Translations

Anagrams

• GWAS, WAGs, wags

Old Frisian

Etymology

From a word referring to the fence around a pasture; cf. Old Norse sveigr ‎(“supple branch, headkerchief”), ultimately from a root meaning to bend or twist.

Noun

swāg f

1. pasture

Descendants

• Dutch: zwaag
• Frisian: sweach, swaech

References

• zwaag at Etymologiebank