swat

Verb

swat (third-person singular simple present swats, present participle swatting, simple past and past participle swatted)

1. (transitive) To beat off, as insects; to bat, strike, or hit.

   He swatted the mosquito that was buzzing around in his bedroom.

   The cat swatted at the feather.

   • 2017, Jennifer S. Holland, For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival., National Geographic (March 2017)

     During my first day in the woods, Raoul, the big alpha male of Rambo II, opened wide to show me his dagger-sharp canines, then sauntered by and swatted my calf with a stick—letting me know my place in the social order. (Low.)

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 19:53 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     However, Johnston's luck seems to have run out, as it is hit almost simultaneously by three 18-inch shells and three 6.1-inch shells from Yamato, which has decided to swat the irritating vessel.

Noun

swat (plural swats)

1. A hard stroke, hit or blow, e.g., as part of a spanking.
2. Alternative spelling of swot: vigorous study at an educational institution.
   • 1844, John William Kaye, chapter 3, in Peregrine Pultuney: or, Life in India‎, volume I, Adelaide Street, Trafalgar Square, London: John Mortimer, retrieved 2020-01-08, page 73:

     These seemed to be talking very vehemently about something they called " swat." One of these young gentlemen who had black hair and a pimpled face, seeing Peregrine, turned round and asked him "how far had he gone?" "Where" asked Peregrine, hastily. "In swat!" said the pimple-faced boy. "What's swat?" asked Peregrine Pultuney. "In your studies," said he of the pimples.

   • 1844, “Rules and Regulations of the Honorable East India Company's Seminary at Addiscombe, 1834”, in John William Kaye, editor, Calcutta Review‎, volume II, No. 4 Tank Square, Calcutta: Sanders and Cones, retrieved 2020-01-08, page 136:

     There is work enough—and too much—without this voluntary labor. The confinement during the bright sunny hours of the day is irksome and dispiriting; and it may be fairly questioned whether less would be learnt, if the study hours were reduced from nine to seven—especially as the greater part of these nine long hours is devoted to Mathematics. The cadets have a shorter word for it; they call it swat—a monosyllable which may puzzle the etimologists; but we believe it to be a corruption of the word sweat, and as signifying that a knowledge of mathematics is only to be acquired with much toil—with much sweat of the brow—a sufficiently expressive, word it must be acknowledged.

See also

• flyswatter

Verb

swat (third-person singular simple present swats, present participle swatting, simple past and past participle swatted)

1. (US, slang, transitive) To illegitimately provoke a SWAT assault upon (someone).
   • 2007 November 30, ““Swatters” Plead Guilty to Conspiracy”, in Federal Bureau of Investigation Dallas Field Division‎, archived from the original on 2007-12-26:

     The conspiracy, as alleged, began in November 2002, and has resulted in hundreds of harassing and swatting calls being made, both nationally and internationally, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses and the disruption hundreds of victims’ lives.

   • 2017, Elizabeth Heiter, Stalked, MIRA, →ISBN:

     “You've just been swatted.” “What?” Sophia asked. “A spoofed call to police, claiming an emergency, to get a SWAT response,” Evelyn said. Realizing why the SWAT officer had noticed the controller, she guessed, […]

   • 2021 July 24, Maria Cramer, “A Grandfather Died in ‘Swatting’ Over His Twitter Handle, Officials Say”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     “Gonna need the instagram account … or i will continue to swat and harass you and your family,” Mr. Sonderman or one of his co-conspirators wrote in March 2020, according to court documents.

Declension

Strong a-stem:

Derived terms

• swǣtan (“to sweat”)
• swātiġ (“sweaty”)
• swātþȳrel (“a pore”)

Descendants

• English: swate, swote, swot, swete, swet
  • English: sweat

Declension

Related terms