/swɪft/
OriginFrom Middle English swift, from Old English swift (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Germanic *swiftaz (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weyp- (“to twist; wind around”). Cognate with Icelandic svipta (“to pull quickly”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”). More at swivel.
- Fast; quick; rapid.
“swift action”
“swift response”
“swift recovery”
- Capable of moving at high speeds.
- obsolete, poeticSwiftly.
“Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.”
“Ply swift and strong the oar.”
“Let no thing escape; / Catch these for me before we all are flown, / Torn, violate, by time’s triumphal rape: / Run swift into the wheeling day; the night / Takes all of us.”
- A small plain-colored bird of the family Apodidae that resembles a swallow and is noted for its rapid flight.
- Any of certain lizards of the genus Sceloporus.
“As a guide to start your collection we'd suggest either iguanas, tejus, swifts, basilisks, horned toads or alligator lizards.”
- A moth of the family Hepialidae, swift moth, ghost moth.
“Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that th”
- Any of various fast-flying hesperiid butterflies.
- A light, collapsible reel used to hold a hank of yarn in order to wind off skeins or balls.
- The main cylinder of a carding-machine.
- obsoleteThe current of a stream.
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of Structured What If Technique.
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of Stored Waveform Inverse Fourier Transform.
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of Stratospheric Wind Interferometer For Transport Studies.
- A surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a swift or quick person.
- A general-purpose multi-paradigm compiled programming language introduced by Apple Inc. in 2014.
“If anyone outside Apple saw Swift coming, they certainly weren't making any public predictions.”
“Apple has made its Swift programming tools open source, Google opened up its TensorFlow machine-learning software, and IBM did the same with its SystemML.”
“Unlike some children’s apps, which employ drag-and-drop blocks to teach coding, the Apple program uses Swift, a professional programming language that the company introduced in 2014.”
- alt-ofAlternative letter-case form of SWIFT (“Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication”).
“That year [2012], Iran was cut off from the Swift global payment system.”
- An unincorporated community in DuPage County, Illinois, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Roseau County, Minnesota, United States.
- An extinct town in Pemiscot County, Missouri, United States.
- A minor river in Leicestershire and Warwickshire, England, which joins the (Warwickshire) Avon north of Rugby.
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
- UK, abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of South Wales Integrated Fast transit.
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of Southwest Airlines Integrated Flights Tracking.
- US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of Statewide Interlibrary loan Fast Track.
- US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of State Wildland Inmate Fire Team.
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of Simple Web Interface Toolset.
Formsswifter(comparative) · swiftest(superlative) · more swift(comparative) · most swift(superlative) · swifts(plural)