SWING

Meaning of SWING in English

I. verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a door swings open/shut (= moves forward to open or backwards to shut )

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The door swung shut behind me.

a party is in full swing (= people at a party are having a good time talking, dancing etc )

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At 3 am, the party was still in full swing.

a swing bridge British English (= one that can be pulled up for ships to go under )

mood swings (= changes of mood )

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Sudden mood swings can be a sign of mental illness.

sb's golf swing (= the way someone moves a golf club when hitting the ball )

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Keith's been working on improving his golf swing.

sth swings shut

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The gate swung shut behind her.

swing bridge

swing door

swing set

swing shift

swinging door

swinging sixties

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Dad grew up in the swinging sixties.

swing/spring/leap into action (= suddenly start doing something )

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The fire crew immediately swung into action.

swung...open

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The gates swung silently open .

the pendulum...swing

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After several years of Republican government, the pendulum will undoubtedly swing back and voters will elect a Democrat.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

around

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But as his hand grasped her arm, she recognised defeat, and, halting, she swung around .

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The boat swung around to its new heading.

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The snapping jaws missed, but he felt its far as it swung around and scampered away.

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Its passengers swing around like boxed chickens in the back of a livestock lorry on a mountain pass.

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When the car started to swing around again, I made myself steer in the direction of the skid.

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Alarmed, she swung around and lit the candle.

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Our robes billowed as we swung around .

away

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Prentice swung away and lurched towards the door.

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I took out my key but the door swung away from me into the depths of the room.

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Unable to bear any more, she swung away to stumble over the ploughed field.

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And the hospital can swing away , since in a hearing it has absolute protection from libel.

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The dead is sitting up! and swung away .

back

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Thus the pendulum of public pressure swings back and forth, reflecting the unresolved tensions within public policy.

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Conroy said he believed the pendulum had swung back toward the belief that children should be punished.

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In recent years the pendulum has swung back .

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Places that seemed wrapped up for one man or the other a couple of weeks ago keep swinging back into play.

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The flowers open so much that the petals swing back .

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This year, the suburbanites may be swinging back to the Democratic column.

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More so now than a few years ago, the pendulum's swinging back .

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Public opinion swung back to Truman.

over

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A similar effect is used in another part with a ball swinging over the screen.

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The whistle would go, Whitaker would show us how to swing over the regulator and we would be away.

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His girl leaned over him, talking to him, with her long straight hair swinging over his face.

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Chimpanzees, on the other hand, usually only cross if the branches are so close that they can swing over .

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The rig will swing over the front of the board and try to pull you over.

round

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She swung round and walked swiftly out of the office.

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He swings round dizzily and heads for the streets, feeling as if he may fly.

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The Audi followed, spinning slightly on the wet road, the back end swinging round as the driver revved too hard.

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Dropping the wing, Mungo swung round , losing his balance.

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Thigh-deep in the loch, Hector swung round .

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He swung round and began to walk back to Church Row.

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Caught red-handed, her plate piled high, she swung round .

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When he swung round she stared at him helplessly, shocked by his appearance.

wildly

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Daak was moving again now, swinging wildly from side to side in an attempt to avoid the lasers' targeting.

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For in practice, the shift in the focus of monetary policy meant that interest rates would swing wildly .

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Through the smoke he saw the balloon dropping, its basket swinging wildly .

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Allowing interest rates to swing wildly meant allowing bond prices to swing wildly.

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The Test has been delicately poised for four days, with fortunes swinging wildly .

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Allowing interest rates to swing wildly meant allowing bond prices to swing wildly.

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She lashed out, her arm swinging wildly .

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Some ropes had come loose and were swinging wildly in the wind.

■ NOUN

arm

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Let you r arms swing with you.

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Five minutes passed and several police cars careened by. long black arms swung threateningly at the parked cars.

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It was Ace's hand on her arm that swung her round to meet him, her face full of frightened guilt.

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She walked faster, her strong arms swinging her along.

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She reached for the fire, intending to pluck a brand, but something grabbed her arm and swung her round.

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Room to swing my arms , and swing my mind.

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Petey fell back, arms swinging .

axe

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Manager Lennie Lawrence will swing the axe at Swindon and demand 90-minute commitment.

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He imagines himself somewhere else, far away from here, walking through the woods and swinging an axe over his shoulder.

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No need to swing the axe here, just slot the picks on to the cracks between the welded icicles.

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Bowring's control broke, and he swung the axe toward the unbearable sight of the grinning face.

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He rides a massive chariot pulled by three wolves, and swings his mighty axe Elf-Biter.

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It is the same as swinging an axe to chop down a tree.

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I started swinging the axe at the lumps of driftwood.

bag

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Maura stopped in front of them, still swinging her school bag .

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The canvas of the swinging bag could be used as number-one sandpaper.

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Kate walked away, swinging her bag .

bat

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Felt queasy after, but swung the bat okay and then came back to the hotel, which is small but clean.

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I kept swinging the bat , but by now Guy and Carmine had biked out of range and were looking back.

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We have the hitter sit on the ball swinging a bat .

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Both throw a lot of strikes and both make hitters swing the bat early in the count.

club

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Diana's golfing history is a lesson to all for she was more or less 40 before swinging a club !

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Muskets were swung as clubs , pistols were fired point-blank, and swords flashed and clanged.

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The golfer must be in a position to swing the club back.

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This from a man who has swung clubs with President Clinton and a half-dozen Hall of Fame golfers.

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Framed photographs of Manningham swinging a club decorated the lime green walls.

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The best of your countrymen have become good golf robots, outstanding golf robots, all swinging the club the same way.

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Turn away, swing the arms and club and then pull the body and legs through.

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The guard swung the club backwards once more, striking Nineteen on the arm.

direction

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That frenzied period has passed and, if anything, the pendulum has swung in the other direction .

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Let your arms swing in the opposite direction .

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This, of course, causes the pendulum to swing in the same direction .

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By the 1870s and 1880s, however, the pendulum was swinging in the opposite direction .

mood

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The bags under their eyes reflect the wild mood swings that have afflicted the party since the first week.

pendulum

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The pendulum has swung from silly dreaming to grinding pragmatism.

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The pendulum swung back and the feminine principle experienced five centuries of heavy repression.

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Thus the pendulum of public pressure swings back and forth, reflecting the unresolved tensions within public policy.

▪

Conroy said he believed the pendulum had swung back toward the belief that children should be punished.

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In recent years the pendulum has swung back.

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For death penalty adherents, the pendulum has finally swung their way: California will enforce the death penalty more quickly.

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Now the pendulum seems to have swung the other way.

tree

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Wind and height forgotten, Pascoe swung down from the tree like a gymnast.

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A fridge I lied about swinging through the trees !

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In woodlands they can swing from tree to tree or scramble over the treetops to drop to the forest floor below.

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They swing from tree to tree.

vote

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One worker in ten may not be enough to mount powerful strikes; but it is plenty enough to swing a vote .

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

be in full swing

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Barcelona was full of visitors, and preparations for the Olympic Games were in full swing.

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By 10 o'clock the party was in full swing and everyone was dancing.

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The college football season is now in full swing.

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Behind us, the party was in full swing.

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Inaugural activities were in full swing Saturday despite the cold.

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These are the sure signs that green corn tamale season is in full swing.

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They know who loves them, and their career is in full swing.

the swinging sixties

there's not enough room to swing a cat

tip/swing the balance

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Your letter of recommendation swung the balance in his favor.

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Chernobyl had further tipped the balance .

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His influence on deputies is significant, but it will be Mr Yeltsin's performance that will swing the balance .

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Perhaps remorse at having joined it had tipped the balance of Fred's mind.

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Teachers may try to tip the balance about this Englishness.

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The nature of his choice or the terms in which it is expressed may then tip the balance .

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The thought or feeling tipped the balance , made the difference.

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Vigorous efforts were made to tip the balance more in favour of those with greater needs.

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What tipped the balance against that was my continuing dreadful performance in the classroom.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

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A lantern swung from a hook in the roof.

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A small jewelled cross swung from a gold chain around her neck.

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As you swing the golf club back, try to keep your eye on the ball.

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Bennett kicked a leg out, then swung a fist that didn't make contact.

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Do you swing ?

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Doors swung open and then shut as hospital porters pushed a patient down the corridor.

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His opinions would often swing from one extreme to the other.

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She swung the ax, hitting the log squarely in the middle.

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The car swung north towards the Arizona mountains.

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The door swung open slowly.

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The driver swung the Cadillac off the road with a squeal of tires.

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The only sound was the creak of a sign swinging in the wind.

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The speedometer needle swung wildly back and forth.

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The wooden bridge swung from side to side in a terrifying fashion.

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We began the workout by swinging our arms.

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We used to have contests to see who could swing the highest.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

▪

But as his hand grasped her arm, she recognised defeat, and, halting, she swung around.

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Daak was moving again now, swinging wildly from side to side in an attempt to avoid the lasers' targeting.

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Fortunately, the pendulum appears finally to be swinging the other way.

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I waited out at the end of the seaplane dock and swung aboard his sailboat as it drifted into the dock.

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Instinctively he swung the wheel and the truck hit the car.

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The door of a garden shed had swung open.

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When the car started to swing around again, I made myself steer in the direction of the skid.

II. noun

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

big

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Lead experienced the biggest swing , hitting a ten-year high of £800 a tonne in March.

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The Easter holiday is the likely culprit for the big swings , though.

full

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The campaign has already been in full swing for several months, even though it has not officially started.

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Behind us, the party was in full swing .

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I was on campus when the food riots hit full swing .

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These are the sure signs that green corn tamale season is in full swing .

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The trouble with playing from this distance, however, is that you do not require a full swing .

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Her training regimen, which is now in full swing for Boston, involves a daily run of 5 to 8 miles.

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From around 50 yards out you will not need to produce a full swing .

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They know who loves them, and their career is in full swing .

national

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It is possible, for instance, to see in California at this time the beginnings of a national swing to the right.

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In 1987, the small 2.5 percent national swing from Conservative to Labour was differentiated between North and South.

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In the 1979 and 1983 elections there were examples of locally popular candidates holding their marginal seats against the national swing .

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Already, they have contributed to great national mood swings .

■ NOUN

bridge

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It was a great walk, with swing bridges across the river, and we never met a soul all day.

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Two bascule bridges and one swing bridge further upstream had become totally inadequate.

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At the dock's entrance is a cast-iron swing bridge .

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It was five minutes to eight when Yanto cycled over the low swing bridge on to the wharfs of Sharpness Docks.

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A wrought-iron girder swing bridge at the Northern Entrance Lock may be the original installed by Brunel.

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A bloke jumped out of the boat, ran past me, over the swing bridge and opened it up.

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The dock's redeeming qualities are the old swing bridges and the boats themselves, many of them beautiful old sailing ships.

door

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The door swings open to reveal an empty top shelf.

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The door swings shut, and they are locked for ever in their chosen cell.

mood

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His mood swings are generally only related to the latest project he's working on.

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Loi was well on his way down into the depths of a mood swing .

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They caused me to have terrible mood swings and it put my relationship with Stuart under a lot of strain.

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The mood swing was worrying, but at least it was an upbeat beginning to the day.

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It was the beginning of a frustrating period for Hunt and his mood swings were on the downturn.

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It gives you enormous mood swings , which nobody told me about.

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Pat Jerrom says Danniella had violent mood swings and threatened to commit suicide.

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A woman who is not ovulating escapes the sharp changes in hormone levels that can lead to mood swings .

vote

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Pinochet and who hold the swing vote in the upper house.

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Justice Sandra Day O'Connor provided the key swing vote in both cases.

voter

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Within this group, 40 % are identified as swing voters .

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Clinton hammered away at campaign themes tailor-made to appeal to predominantly white swing voters who might otherwise vote for Republican Bob Dole.

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They are the classic swing voters .

■ VERB

play

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She could hear her three- year-old son Rufus laughing as he played on the swings nearby.

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You are playing on the swing .

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This groove is played with a swing eighth note feel - great line, great track, great album.

take

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He had a majority of 13,783, which would take an 18 % swing to shift.

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He was an animal child, ten years old, he stood up to the plate and took fluid practice swings .

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Since that lunch everything had taken an upward swing .

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He slapped her on the side of the head and she took half a swing at him.

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He takes a practice swing , sets himself again, looks at the target - and what happens?

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Sooner or later the President will take a swing through Florida.

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I must admit I admired the way he didn't even flinch when Richie took his first swing of the day.