noun, verb ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Drink, liquor. obsolete
2. 2
   a large and hurried swallow wordnet
3. 3
   A long draught from a drink. broadly

   "take a swig of whisky"

4. 4
   A person who drinks deeply. obsolete
5. 5
   A tackle with ropes which are not parallel.

Show 1 more definition

6. 6
   Warm beer flavoured with spices, lemon, etc.

Verb

1. 1
   To drink (usually by gulping or in a greedy or unrefined manner); to quaff.

   "That sailor can swig whisky with the best of 'em."

2. 2
   to swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one draught wordnet
3. 3
   To suck. obsolete

   "As sucking Colts leap when they swig the Teat"

4. 4
   strike heavily, especially with the fist or a bat wordnet
5. 5
   To take up the last bit of slack in rigging by taking a single turn around a cleat, then hauling on the line above and below the cleat while keeping tension on the line.

Synonyms

All synonyms

draughtgulpgulpquaffbeveragebib

Example

More examples

"Tom took a swig from the flask."

Etymology

Unknown, mid 16th c. Perhaps connected with Old English swelgan (“to swallow”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.