<B>switchback, </B>noun, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a section of a railroad or highway built in a zigzag course up a steep grade, as on the side of a mountain, by means of which the rate of climb of the roadbed is held within a tolerable range. <BR> <I>Ex. The trail began suddenly to rise in sharp switchbacks from the valley floor (Paul Brooks).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Especially British.) a roller coaster. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to take a zigzag course. <BR> <I>Ex. For three miles, without either village or cottage, this narrow ... byroad switchbacked up and down across the high ground (Geoffrey Household).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchblade">
<B>switchblade, </B>noun, or <B>switch blade knife,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a pocketknife with a blade that springs out at the push of a button or knob on the handle. <BR> <I>Ex. A large quantity of guns and switchblade knives were scooped up by police (Birmingham News).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchboard">
<B>switchboard, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a panel or group of panels with electric switches and plugs for opening, closing, combining, controlling, measuring, and protecting a number of electric circuits. Some telephone switchboards have plugs for connecting one line to another. </DL>
<A NAME="switchbox">
<B>switch box,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a box containing the parts of one or more electric switches. </DL>
<A NAME="switchcane">
<B>switch cane,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a short-stemmed grass of the southern United States, found in wet areas and used as fodder. </DL>
<A NAME="switchedon">
<B>switched-on, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) smart; up-to-date; stylish. <BR> <I>Ex. The women were in short, switched-on dresses (New Yorker). ... the new, switched-on world of "swinging" London (Maclean's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchengine">
<B>switch engine,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an engine used in railroad yards for moving and switching trains and railroad cars; switcher. </DL>
<A NAME="switcher">
<B>switcher, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person or thing that switches. <DD><B> 2. </B>(U.S.) a railroad engine used for switching cars and making up trains in a railroad yard. <BR> <I>Ex. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ordered 25 ... road switchers (Wall Street Journal).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a piece of television equipment used to change scenes or combine scenes from two or more cameras or other video sources. </DL>
<A NAME="switcheroo">
<B>switcheroo, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) a sudden, startling change, as in character, appearance, or action; sudden reversal. <BR> <I>Ex. As things seem to be moving toward a sordid triangle case, [she] pulls her switcheroo (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchgear">
<B>switchgear, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the device operating switches in electric circuits. </DL>
<A NAME="switchgrass">
<B>switchgrass, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a tall panic grass found from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains, used especially for hay. </DL>
<A NAME="switchhit">
<B>switch-hit, </B>intransitive verb, <B>-hit,</B> <B>-hitting.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to bat either right-handed or left-handed; be a switch-hitter. </DL>
<A NAME="switchhitter">
<B>switch-hitter, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a baseball player who bats either right- or left-handed. <BR> <I>Ex. For a while Lloyd talked of baseball ... how he'd practiced batting left-handed so he could be a switch-hitter like Mickey Mantle (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchhitting">
<B>switch-hitting, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> hitting right-handed or left-handed; being a switch-hitter. </DL>
<A NAME="switchman">
<B>switchman, </B>noun, pl. <B>-men.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a man in charge of one or more railroad switches, as at a junction or siding. <DD><B> 2. </B>a man who helps with the shifting of cars and makeup of trains, as at a sorting yard or freight terminal. </DL>
<A NAME="switchover">
<B>switchover, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the act of switching or changing over (to); conversion. <BR> <I>Ex. Now that the campaign is over, the big problem is the switchover to a new administration (Newsweek).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchplant">
<B>switch plant,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Botany.) a plant that bears slender green shoots or rodlike branches with small leaves or without leaves. <BR> <I>Ex. Leaves may be omitted altogether and the green food-making surface confined to modified stems, as in ... such switch plants (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchplate">
<B>switch plate,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a plate for covering a switch box so that the lever, plug, or other switch protrudes. </DL>
<A NAME="switchselling">
<B>switch selling,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the selling of a more expensive item to customers than the one advertised at a much lower price. <BR> <I>Ex. All its salesmen are, and always have been, expressly forbidden to attempt 'switch selling' (Sunday Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switchyard">
<B>switchyard, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a railroad yard where cars are switched from one track to another and put together to make trains; sorting yard. </DL>
<B>swither, </B>verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> (Scottish.) to falter; hesitate. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a state of agitation or excitement; flurry or fluster. <BR> <I>Ex. The novelty of having women appear in pants suits has headwaiters across the country in a swither (Time).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Scottish.) a state of perplexity or hesitation; doubt or uncertainty. <BR> <I>Ex. [He] stands some time in jumbled swither, to ride in this road, or that ither (Allan Ramsay).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="switz">
<B>Switz.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> Switzerland. </DL>
<A NAME="switzer">
<B>Switzer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a Swiss. </DL>
<A NAME="swive">
<B>swive, </B>transitive verb, intransitive verb, <B>swived,</B> <B>swiving.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) to have sexual intercourse. noun <B>swiver.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="swivel">
<B>swivel, </B>noun, verb, <B>-eled,</B> <B>-eling</B> or (especially British) <B>-elled,</B> <B>-elling.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1a. </B>a simple fastening or coupling device that allows the thing fastened to turn around freely upon it. <DD><B> b. </B>a chain link having two parts, one of which turns freely in the other. <DD><B> 2. </B>a support on which a chair can turn around. <DD><B> 3a. </B>the flexible support of a swivel gun, by which the weapon is permitted to be elevated or depressed, or to range to right or left. <DD><B> b. </B>a gun that turns on such a support; swivel gun. <BR> <I>Ex. Mounted high up in the rigging, however, the ships had a few smaller guns, called swivels (New Yorker).</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to turn (anything) on a swivel. <DD><B> 2. </B>to swing around; rotate; turn. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to turn on a swivel. <DD><B> 2. </B>to furnish with a swivel; fasten or support by means of a swivel. <BR> <I>Ex. Leitzel, as every circus familiar knows, performed on Roman rings and on a swivelled rope in the tent top (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to swing around; rotate; turn. </DL>
<A NAME="swivelchair">
<B>swivel chair,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a chair having a seat that turns on a swivel. </DL>
<A NAME="swivelgun">
<B>swivel gun,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a gun, especially any of various relatively light pieces of artillery formerly used on land and at sea, having a barrel mounted on a swivel so that it can be turned in any direction. </DL>
<A NAME="swivelhip">
<B>swivel-hip, </B>intransitive verb, <B>-hipped,</B> <B>-hipping.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to walk or move with a swinging motion of the hips. <BR> <I>Ex. "Garcon!" he cried, as a waiter swivel-hipped ... down one of the aisles, holding his tray high overhead (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="swivelknife">
<B>swivel knife,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a knife used in leathercraft to carve designs into leather. </DL>
<A NAME="swivet">
<B>swivet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) great excitement; frenzy; stir; dither. <BR> <I>Ex. [He] flew into a swivet over the fact that two Texas pelicans died recently in the London zoo (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="swizz">
<B>swizz, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) a swindle; fraud. <BR> <I>Ex. Amanda said, in tones of desperation. "It's a swizz. Michael is never going to die" (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="swizzle">
<B>swizzle, </B>noun, verb, <B>-zled,</B> <B>-zling.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a drink consisting of rum or other alcoholic liquor, crushed ice, bitters, sugar, and lemon or lime juice. <DD><B> 2. </B>any other mixed alcoholic drink. <DD><I>v.t. </I> (Informal.) to drink habitually and to excess; swill. </DL>
<A NAME="swizzlestick">
<B>swizzle stick,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a stick used for stirring swizzles and other drinks. <BR> <I>Ex. Swizzle sticks coated with rock candy are a unique gadget for sweetening old fashioneds, collins drinks, tea or coffee (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<B>swollen, </B>adjective, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> swelled; enlarged; bulging. <BR> <I>Ex. a swollen ankle. (Figurative.) His swollen heart almost bursting (Dickens). Swollen mountain streams burst out of the woods like furious brown snakes, swallowing topsoil and drowning animals (Time).</I> (SYN) puffy, tumid. <DD><I>verb </I> a past participle of <B>swell.</B> <BR> <I>Ex. Her ankle has swollen considerably since she fell. The controversy about bomb tests has swollen in the last three years into a torrent of words (Eugene Rabinowitch).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="swollenshoot">
<B>swollen shoot,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a disease of cacao trees caused by a virus carried by mealy bugs feeding on tree sap. <BR> <I>Ex. The swollen shoot virus ... has cut cocoa bean production by as much as three-fourths in some Gold Coast areas (Science News Letter).</I> </DL>
