swoop
verb/swuːp/
/swuːp/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they swoop | /swuːp/ /swuːp/ |
| he / she / it swoops | /swuːps/ /swuːps/ |
| past simple swooped | /swuːpt/ /swuːpt/ |
| past participle swooped | /swuːpt/ /swuːpt/ |
| -ing form swooping | /ˈswuːpɪŋ/ /ˈswuːpɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] (+ adv./prep.) (of a bird or plane) to fly quickly and suddenly downwards, especially in order to attack somebody/something synonym dive
- The aircraft swooped down over the buildings.
- A hawk swooped low over the field.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- low
- suddenly
- down
- …
- into
- on
- over
- …
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- [intransitive] swoop (on somebody/something) (especially of police or soldiers) to visit or attack somebody/something suddenly and without warning
- Officers swooped on the vehicles as they left the ferry.
- Customs officers swooped on several houses last night looking for drugs.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- low
- suddenly
- down
- …
- into
- on
- over
- …
Word Originmid 16th cent. (in the sense ‘sweep along in a stately manner’): perhaps a dialect variant of Old English swāpan, of Germanic origin. The early sense of the noun was ‘a blow, stroke’.
Check pronunciation:
swoop