What does "swim-off" mean?

A special swimming race in which the winner gets to compete in the next level of trials (typically the finals), where the competitors have not qualified for the next level by the usual elimination races.

What is a synonym for "swim-off"?

Common synonyms include: sprint.

Swim-off

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A special swimming race in which the winner gets to compete in the next level of trials (typically the finals), where the competitors have not qualified for the next level by the usual elimination races.
"If the disqualifications leave a vacancy for the full complement of finalists, swim-offs shall be continued among the disqualified swimmers until a full complement of finalists is assured."
2
The start of a period, in which the two teams try to reach the ball placed in the centre of the pool.

Synonyms

All synonyms

sprint

Example

More examples

"If the disqualifications leave a vacancy for the full complement of finalists, swim-offs shall be continued among the disqualified swimmers until a full complement of finalists is assured."

Etymology

From swim + -off.

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