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Swap
Definitions
- 1 An exchange of two comparable things.
"I e’en changed it, as occasion served, with the skippers o’ Dutch luggers and French vessels, for gin and brandy[…] a gude swap too, between what cheereth the soul of man and that which dingeth it clean out of his body"
- 2 A blow; a stroke. UK, countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable
- 3 an equal exchange wordnet
- 4 A financial derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of non-normal cashflow against another stream.
- 5 Space available in a swap file for use as auxiliary memory. informal, uncountable
"How much swap do you need?"
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- 6 A social meal at a restaurant between two university societies, usually involving drinking and banter; commonly associated with fining and pennying; equivalent to a crewdate at Oxford University.
- 1 To exchange or give (something) in an non-normal exchange (for something else). transitive
"In an effort to provide more permanent accommodations, employers may offer employees the opportunity either to swap jobs with a colleague or to transfer to a new position."
- 2 move (a piece of a program) into memory, in computer science wordnet
- 3 To hit, to strike. obsolete, transitive
"And he whipped his sword out of its scabbard, and swapped off the pudding from the black knight's nose. Unfortunately (for him) he swapped off a good bit of the nose, too."
- 4 exchange or give (something) in exchange for wordnet
- 5 To beat the air, or ply the wings, with a sweeping motion or noise; to flap. obsolete, transitive
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- 6 To descend or fall; to rush hastily or violently. intransitive, obsolete
Etymology
From Middle English swappen (“to swap”), originally meaning "to hurl" or "to strike", the word alludes to striking hands together when making an exchange; probably from Old English *swappian, a secondary form of Old English swāpan (“to swoop”). Cognate with German schwappen (“to slosh, slop”). Compare also Middle English swippen (“to strike, hit”), from Old English swipian (“to scourge, strike, beat, lash”), Old Norse svipa (“to swoop, flash, whip, look after, look around”). More at swipe.
From the verb swap. First attested in 1620.
From Middle English swap, swappe (“a blow, strike, lash from a whip”), from the verb (see Etymology 1 above).
See also for "swap"
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