The AI-powered English dictionary
third-person singular simple present swaggers, present participle swaggering, simple past and past participle swaggered
To behave (especially to walk or carry oneself) in a pompous, superior manner. quotations examples
He is a political humbug, the greatest of all humbugs; a man who swaggers about London clubs and consults solemnly about his influence, and in the country is a nonentity.
1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter XI, in Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], book II, page 235
To boast or brag noisily; to bluster; to bully. quotations examples
To be great is not […] to swagger at our footmen.
1698, Jeremy Collier, A Moral Essay upon Pride
For the common Soldier when he goes to the Market or Ale-house will offer this Money, and if it be refused, perhaps he will SWAGGER and HECTOR, and Threaten to Beat the BUTCHER or Ale-Wife, or take the Goods by Force, and throw them the bad HALF-PENCE.
1724, “The Drapier’s Letters”, in Dublin and London, Jonathan Swift, published 1730, Letter 1, p. 14
“They say there’s something wrong with our president!” Mr. Trump swaggered at his indoor Tulsa rally in June, […]
2020, Matt Flegenheimer, “A President’s Positive Test and the Year That Won’t Let Up”, in The New York Times
To walk with a swaying motion. quotations examples
It's the injustice… he is so unjust—whiskey-blind, swaggering home at five.
1959, Robert Lowell, “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage”, in Life Studies
countable and uncountable, plural swaggers
Confidence, pride. quotations examples
After spending so much of the season looking upwards, the swashbuckling style and swagger of early season Spurs was replaced by uncertainty and frustration against a Norwich side who had the quality and verve to take advantage
2012 April 9, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport
A bold or arrogant strut. quotations examples
He steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk, and would let that cripple of a steamboat get the upper hand of him in a minute.
1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I
A prideful boasting or bragging. quotations examples
Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their lives on the shattered dreams of others.
1968, Robert F. Kennedy, On the Mindless Menace of Violence
comparative more swagger, superlative most swagger
(slang, archaic) Fashionable; trendy. quotations
It is to be a very swagger affair, with notables from every part of Europe, and they seem determined that no one connected with a newspaper shall be admitted.
1899, Robert Barr, Jennie Baxter, Journalist
Mrs J.J. [Thomson] looked very well and was dressed very swagger and made a very fine hostess.
15 March, 1896, Ernest Rutherford, letter to Mary Newton
Mrs. Morton was well known for her Americanisms, her swagger dinner parties, and beautiful Paris gowns.
1908, Baroness Orczy, The Old Man in the Corner
plural swaggers
(Australia, New Zealand, historical) Synonym of swagman quotations
She looked down in her half-dreaming state and thought they might be swaggers. There were lots of them that year, camped out on the riverbank netting for whitebait, then fanning out around the streets selling their catch door to door.
2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, page 66