swap

• swop

• enPR: swŏp, Rhymes: -ɒp

  • Audio (UK); /swɒp/:

    (file)

  • Audio (US); /swɑːp/:

    (file)

• (Indic, spelling pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sʋap/
  • Rhymes: -æp

From Middle English swappen (“to swap”), originally meaning "to hurl" or "to strike", the word alludes to striking hands together when making an exchange; probably from Old English *swappian, a secondary form of Old English swāpan (“to swoop”). Cognate with German schwappen (“to slosh, slop”). Compare also Middle English swippen (“to strike, hit”), from Old English swipian (“to scourge, strike, beat, lash”), Old Norse svipa (“to swoop, flash, whip, look after, look around”). More at swipe.

swap (third-person singular simple present swaps, present participle swapping, simple past and past participle swapped)

1. (transitive) To exchange or give (something) in an non-normal exchange (for something else).

   Synonyms: exchange, switch, trade

   • 1998, Michael Wolf with Bruce Friedman and Daniel Sutherland, Religion in the workplace, page 98:

     In an effort to provide more permanent accommodations, employers may offer employees the opportunity either to swap jobs with a colleague or to transfer to a new position.

   • 2007, Lloyd Zimpel, A Season of Fire and Ice:

     Chief watched these goings-on without pleasure, and waved them off in disgust when the smarmiest of the two suggested he might wish to swap that elk's tooth for this jug of fine rye whiskey.

   • 2011, Andrew Scott Cooper, The Oil Kings: How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East, page 253:

     The Shah wanted to swap oil for more arms.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To hit, to strike.
   • 1954, Edward Eager, Half Magic:

     And he whipped his sword out of its scabbard, and swapped off the pudding from the black knight's nose. Unfortunately (for him) he swapped off a good bit of the nose, too.

   • 1954, C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy:

     "Maybe Apes will grow honest, Sister," said Edmund. "But, by the Lion, if he breaks it again, it may be in such time and place that any of us could swap off his head in clean battle."

3. (transitive, obsolete) To beat the air, or ply the wings, with a sweeping motion or noise; to flap.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To descend or fall; to rush hastily or violently.

• (exchange or give (something) in exchange for): interchange, switch; See also Thesaurus:switch
• (hit, strike): bang, knock, tap; See also Thesaurus:hit
• (beat the air): flap
• (rush hastily): fly, speed, zoom; See also Thesaurus:rush

• (exchange or give (something) in exchange for): hot-swap, swap in, swap out

From the verb swap. First attested in 1620.

swap (plural swaps)

1. An exchange of two comparable things.
   • 1819, Sir Walter Scott, Tales of My Landlord, The Bride of Lammermoor:

     I e’en changed it, as occasion served, with the skippers o’ Dutch luggers and French vessels, for gin and brandy […] a gude swap too, between what cheereth the soul of man and that which dingeth it clean out of his body

   • 2026 January 5, Callum Sutherland, “Who Is Cilia Flores? What to Know About Maduro’s Wife Amid Fall of Venezuela's First Couple”, in TIME‎^[1]:

     Flores' nephews were each sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment in 2017 for conspiring to import cocaine, but they were released in 2022 by the Biden Administration as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela.

2. (finance) A financial derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of non-normal cashflow against another stream.
3. (computing, informal, uncountable) Space available in a swap file for use as auxiliary memory.

   How much swap do you need?

4. (Cambridge University slang) A social meal at a restaurant between two university societies, usually involving drinking and banter; commonly associated with fining and pennying; equivalent to a crewdate at Oxford University.

• (an exchange of things): barter, quid pro quo, trade

• (financial derivative): credit default swap; total return swap

From Middle English swap, swappe (“a blow, strike, lash from a whip”), from the verb (see Etymology 1 above).

swap (countable and uncountable, plural swaps)

1. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A blow; a stroke.

• swap on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• WSPA, Spaw, spaw, WAPs, paws, wasp, WASP, APWs, PWAs, waps, AWPs, waps., PAWS, Wasp

From English swap.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʋɑp/, [ˈs̠ʋɑ̝p]
• IPA^(key): /ˈsʋæp/, [ˈs̠ʋæp]
• Rhymes: -ɑp

swap (slang)

1. (finance) swap (financial derivative)

   Synonym: vaihtosopimus

2. (computing) swap (auxiliary memory)

   Synonym: heittovaihtomuisti

• verbs: swapata

• “swap”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

Borrowed from English swap.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈswap/ [ˈswap̚]
• Rhymes: -ap
• Syllabification: swap

swap (plural swap-swap)

1. swap
   1. an exchange of two comparable things.

      Synonym: barter

   2. (finance) a financial derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of non-normal cashflow against another stream.

• “swap”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016
• Bunbunan E. J. Hutampea; Soemarso S. R.; Jan Hoesada; Indriani Eko Yulianto; Meity Taqdir Qodratillah; T. B. Gultom (1993), Kamus Keuangan [Dictionary of Finance] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, →ISBN, page 52: “swap”

Unadapted borrowing from English swap.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsfap/, /ˈsɔp/, /ˈswɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ap, -ɔp
• Syllabification: swap

swap m inan (related adjective swapowy)

1. (finance) swap (financial agreement to exchange cashflows)

   dealer swapu ― swap dealer

   swap amortyzowany ― amortizing swap

   swap kredytowy/swap ryzyka kredytowego ― credit default swap

   swap procentowy/swap stopy procentowej ― interest rate swap

   swap walutowy ― currency swap

   • 2009 August 18, “USA: Lehman skarży AIG”, in Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa‎^[3]:

     Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. skarży AIG o 9 mln dol. zaległych wypłat z tytułu ochrony swapów kredytowych, jaką bank wykupił u ubezpieczyciela.

     Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is suing AIG for 9 million dollars in outstanding payments for credit default swap protection the bank has bought from the insurer.

Indeclinable, or:

• swap in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English swap.

• IPA^(key): /ˈswap/ [ˈswap]
• Rhymes: -ap
• Syllabification: swap

swap m (plural swaps)

1. (finance) swap

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• Manuel Seco; Olimpia Andrés; Gabino Ramos (3 August 2023), “swap”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA [BBVA Foundation]