[f. SWIM v. + -ING2.] That swims, in various senses.
1. Moving along in the water by natural means of progression; that habitually swims, as some birds and insects.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. i. 20. Teon nu þa wæteru forð swimmende cynn cucu on life.
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 310. He ʓescop eall wyrmcynn & creopende & fleoʓende & swymmende.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., i. 55. The water to norish the fysh swymand.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 134. Poor Tom, that eates the swimming Frog.
1804. Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. 463. Swimming Pegasus…. Native of the Indian seas.
1859. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., Index, Swimming birds (Natatores).
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., II. ix. (ed. 2), 232. The spider crab, and swimming or velvet crab, are also eaten.
b. fig. Characterized by easy smooth motion or progress, as of a person swimming; free from obstruction or difficulty.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 88. During a swimming period of six years, I scarce remember to have experienced the smallest discontent.
1830. in Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 320. Emigration is going on at a swimming rate.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xxii. (1857), 496. I … carried my election by a swimming majority.
c. Stock Exchange. (See quot.)
1870. Medbery, Men & Myst. Wall Str., 138. Swimming market—the opposite of a sick market. Everything is buoyant.
2. Floating in the water; spec. in Bot. (see quot. 1859).
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 60. Se swymmenda arc [= Noah’s ark].
1548. Turner, Names Herbes, 65. Potamogeton … maye be named in englishe Pondplantayne, or swymmynge plantayne.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cclxxxvii. 680 (heating). Of Duckes meate, and other swimming herbes.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 1. A Ship of War…. It’s the most admirable swimming Contrivance, that ever mortal Thought brought forth.
1793. Martyn, Lang. Bot., Swimming or Floating leaf.
1859. Henslow, Dict. Bot. Terms, Swimming, used vaguely for aquatics, which either float on the surface, or have their leaves floating. More restrictedly applied to aquatics which are wholly immersed, and also free from attachment to the bottom.
1870. trans. Pouchet’s Universe (1871), 42. The swimming fucus or sea-weed.
1879. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6), I. xiii. 374. When the pole of an ordinary magnet is brought to act upon the swimming needle [i.e., floating upon a liquid].
b. Swimming stone: a kind of stone so light as to float upon water; = FLOAT-STONE 2.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., 111. In a copper-mine … near Redruth, they have a stone which they call the Swimming-stone.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 199/2. Cavernous quartz is termed Spongiform quartz or Swimming stone.
† c. fig. Wavering, unsteady. Obs. rare.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, 71. Certaine strange dreames … which wel she hoped were but idle swimming fancies of no consequence.
1603. Bacon, Valerius Terminus, i. Wks. 1857, III. 239. As far as a swimming anticipation could take hold.
† d. fig. Superficial, on the surface. Obs. rare.
a. 1679. T. Goodwin, Work of Holy Spirit, V. vi. Wks. 1703, V. I. 205. An abundance … of swimming knowledg, common enlightning.
† 3. Of the carriage of the body: Characterized by a smooth waving motion. Obs.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 130. Which she with pretty and with swimming gate Following … Would imitate, and saile vpon the Land.
1694. N. H., Ladies Dict., 169/2. A Swimming Gate, or an affected Pace, as if you were … measuring the ground by the Foot as you pass along. Ibid., 495/2. He … admires her swiming Carriage.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 52, ¶ 2. That swimming Air of your Body.
1731. Lady M. W. Montagu, Poems, Farew. to Bath, vi. Somerville, of courteous mien,… With swimming Haws, and Brownlow blithe.
4. Overflowing (in quot. transf.).
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. XCVIII. iii. You streamy rivers clapp your swymming hands.
b. Of the eyes: Suffused with tears; watery.
a. 1729. Congreve, Tears of Amaryllis, 126. From her swimming eyes began to pour Of softly falling rain a silver show’r.
1864. Tennyson, En. Ard., 322. She rose, and fixt her swimming eyes upon him.
c. advb.
1887. Suppl. Jamieson’s Sc. Dict., Addenda, Swimming … also used as an adv., as in the phrase swimming full, i. e. abundantly, copiously full or filled, well stocked.
5. Affected with, or characterized by, dizziness or giddiness.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 555. For the … curing of the swimming dizzines or giddines in the head.
1688. King’s Declar., 21/2. Yet you … are in no Danger at all of Falling Down, from any other Cause, but the Swimming Conceipt of your Own Head.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 59. A swimming kind of stupor would fall … upon my soul.
1818. Byron, Mazeppa, xviii. The cold, dull, swimming, dense Sensation of recurring sense.
1842. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), I. 178. My head got into a swimming condition.
1885–94. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, April xxix. She yielded, and was borne with swimming brain And airy joy, along the mountain side.
b. Of the eyes or sight (cf. L. oculi natantes, lumina natantia).
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 717. An Iron Slumber shuts my swimming Eyes. Ibid. (1697), Æneid, V. 1113. The Pilot … Soon clos’d his swimming Eyes, and lay supine.
1819. Keats, Eve of St. Mark, 55. With aching neck and swimming eyes, And dazed with saintly imag’ries.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. cxii. And slowly by his swimming eyes was seen A lovely female face.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxv. No trembling of the hand, no error of the swimming sight.
