▪ I. swagger, n.1
(ˈswægə(r))
[f. swagger v.]
1. a. The action of swaggering; external conduct or personal behaviour marked by an air of superiority or defiant or insolent disregard of others.
| 1725 Swift New Song on Wood's Halfpence viii, The butcher is stout, and he values no swagger. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas iv. v. ¶3 She could put on as brazen-faced a swagger as the most impudent dog in town. 1811 Sporting Mag. XXXVII. 86 After much swagger, he asked the constable if he knew who he was? 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) v. 117 Tall, spare,..with a jovial laugh and a not ungraceful swagger. 1877 Mrs. Forrester Mignon I. 21 A man who has outgrown the swagger and affectations of boyhood, and settled down into a..respectable member of society. 1885 Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines v, He was an impudent fellow, and..his swagger was outrageous. |
b. transf. Applied to a mental or intellectual attitude marked by the same characteristics.
| 1819 Keats Otho i. i, No military swagger of my mind, Can smother from myself the wrong I've done him. 1840 De Quincey Rhet. Wks. 1859 XI. 33 As to Chrysostom and Basil, with less of pomp and swagger than Gregory, they have not at all more of rhetorical burnish and compression. 1869 Ld. Coleridge in E. H. Coleridge Life & Corr. (1904) II. vi. 165 The mingled swagger and cowardice of the whole transaction. 1908 Athenæum 5 Dec. 727/1 He respects the public, contempt for whom is at the root of most artistic display and swagger. |
2. Short for swagger bag, cane, coat, etc.: see swagger-. mod. colloq.
| 1929 Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 327/2 Swagger (hospital slang), a tunic for promenade occasions; ‘square-push’ tunic. 1939 [see beaver lamb s.v. beaver1 6]. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 38 Swagger, a jacket with a very full back, hanging loose in front. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 1 Apr. (Suppl.), In-fashion spring bags... Swaggers, shoulder-straps, double handles. |
▪ II. swagger, n.2
(ˈswægə(r))
[f. swag v. or n. + -er1.]
I. 1. One who causes a thing to ‘swag’ or sway.
| 1653 Urquhart tr. Rabelais i. ii. 17 The swagger who th' alarum bell holds out [orig. Le brimbaleur qui tient le cocquemart]. |
II. 2. Austral. and N.Z. One who carries a swag; a swagman.
| 1855 Melbourne Argus 19 Jan. 6/1 We have observed a great influx of swaggers lately—all seemingly bound for Smith's Creek. 1904 Lady Broome Colonial Mem. 33, I wonder if ‘swaggers’ have been improved off the face of the country districts of New Zealand? Tramps one would perhaps have called them in England, and yet they were hardly tramps so much as men of a roving disposition, who wandered about asking for work, and they really could and did work if wanted. |
▪ III. swagger, a. colloq. or slang.
(ˈswægə(r))
[f. next.]
Showily or ostentatiously equipped, etc.; smart or fashionable in style, manner, appearance, or behaviour; ‘swell’.
| 1879 Cambridge Rev. 26 Nov. 103/2 Is it because the college can't afford to have them [sc. railings] painted? Or are they having some swagger new ones made? 1884 All Yr. Round 18 Oct. 34/2 She becomes, according to the ideas of her class, quite a ‘swagger’ personage. 1888 Echoes fr. Oxford Mag. (1890) 111 Though Bishops and Dons boss the show, And you think that it's awfully swagger. 1890 F. W. Robinson Very Strange Family 172 Keeping you company in your swagger chambers. 1896 M. Corelli Mighty Atom ii, Sir Charles was a notable figure in ‘swagger’ society. |
▸ swagger portrait n. orig. U.S. a commissioned portrait of a prominent or wealthy person which ostentatiously emphasizes or aggrandizes his or her importance, power, or status.
| 1917 N.Y. Times 11 Nov. 70/6 This is what I call a beautiful portrait: not a pretty or a *swagger portrait, but an honest, respectful, appreciative man-to-man portrait. 1992 A. Wilton (title) The swagger portrait: grand manner portraiture in Britain from Van Dyck to Augustus John, 1630–1930. |
▪ IV. swagger, v.
(ˈswægə(r))
[app. f. swag v. + -er5. Cf. the following:—
1598 Chapman Achilles Shield To the Vnderstander B 2, Swaggering is a new worde amongst them, and rounde headed custome giues it priuiledge with much imitation, being created as it were by a naturall Prosopopeia without etimologie or deriuation.]
1. intr. To behave with an air of superiority, in a blustering, insolent, or defiant manner; now esp. to walk or carry oneself as if among inferiors, with an obtrusively superior or insolent air.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 79 What hempen home-spuns haue we swaggering here, So neere the Cradle of the Faierie Queene? 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 6 The cause that now they Swagger, and are masterlesse abroad, is because they were never well mastered at home. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 323 Antonius..sent away P. Ventidius thither to command in chiefe, whilest himselfe swaggered and revelled (drunken beast as hee was) at Athens. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. iii, [He] became so insolent..that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me. 1765 Goldsm. Ess. x, The bunters who swagger in the streets of London. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 66 He took complete possession of the house, swaggering all over it. 1853 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xxii. 113 [He] swaggered about like an aide-de-camp at a review. 1891 E. Gosse Gossip in Library xii. 150 We may think of him as swaggering in scarlet regimentals. |
| With it. 1612 Rowlands Knave of Harts (Hunter. Cl.) 5 To take a purse, or make a Fray, Tis we that swagger it away. a 1656 Capel Rem. (1658) To Rdr., Alcibiades could swagger it at Athens. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 281 They should..swagger it out bravely in their trappings and chains of gold. |
| transf. 1613 Jackson Creed ii. xvi. §7 To see a grande demure Schoole Diuine,..swaggering it in the metaphoricall cut. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. 61 It was Atheism openly Swaggering, under the glorious Appearance of Wisdom and Philosophy. 1827 Scott Chron. Canongate v, A sort of pageant, where trite and obvious maxims are made to swagger in lofty and mystic language. |
b. spec. To talk blusteringly; to hector; † hence, to quarrel or squabble with; also, to grumble. Now only (directly transf. from prec. sense), to talk boastfully or braggingly.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 107 Hee will not swagger with a Barbarie Henne, if her feathers turne backe in any shew of resistance. 1599 ― Hen. V, iv. vii. 131 A Rascall that swagger'd with me last night. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 31 Wise men in Greece in the meane while [were trivial] to swagger so aboute a whore [sc. Helen]. 1601 ? Marston Pasquil & Kath. (1878) iii. 4 Hee dings the pots about, cracks the glasses, swaggers with his owne shaddow. 1611 Coryat Crudities 236 Some of them beganne very insolently to swagger with me, because I durst reprehend their religion. 1644 Trevor in T. Carte Ormond (1735) III. 267 Sir George Radcliffe and Bathe are very violent, which makes the Irish swagger very severely. 1650 H. More Observ. in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656) 127 You swagger and take on..as if..you were of the same fraternity with the highest Theomagicians in the World. 1664 [J. Scudamore] Homer à la Mode 1 One Captaine at another swaggers. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. Address p. iv, The disputes of Men that love to swagger for Opinions. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals iii. iii. 313 The Captains swagger'd [orig. brontolavano = grumbled], that they were not obey'd by their Souldiers. 1736 Sheridan Let. to Swift 31 July, You may think I swagger, but as I hope to be saved it is true. 1854 J. Hannay Sat. & Satirists i. 28 The fellow swaggers and chuckles over every item of his own feast to the men he is entertaining. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) xiii. 309, I will not say that no mountaineer ever swaggers. 1889 The County viii. I. 114 It pays him to have pretty girls about the house and to swagger about his goodness to them. |
c. trans. To influence, force, or constrain by blustering or hectoring language; to bring into or out of a state by blustering talk.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. vi. 240 And 'chud ha' bin zwaggered out of my life. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. v. ii. 136 Will he swagger himselfe out on's owne eyes? 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage viii. ix. 655 The Indian iagges himselfe out of humane lineaments the other swaggers himselfe further out of all ciuill and Christian ornaments. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. v. §30 These quick Answers from the King..made it evident to them that he would be no more Swaggered into concessions. 1728 Swift Acc. Crt. & Emp. Japan ¶12 He would swagger the boldest men into a dread of his power. |
2. intr. To sway, lurch; Sc. to stagger.
| 1724 Ramsay Vision xix, Staggirrand, and swaggirrand, They stoyter hame to sleip. 1825–80 Jamieson, To Swagger, to stagger, to feel as if intoxicated, Moray. 1845 Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 239 The large o'erloaded wealthy-looking wains Quietly swaggering home through leafy lanes. |
b. causatively.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 60, I asked a girl..whether her tray was heavy to carry. ‘After eight hours at it,’ she answered, ‘it swaggers me, like drink.’ |