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swagger

UK/ˈswæɡ.ə/US/ˈswæɡ.ɚ/

verb

What it means

  1. To behave (especially to walk or carry oneself) in a pompous, superior manner.

    What hempen home-ſpuns haue we ſwaggering here, / So neere the Cradle of the Faierie Queene?

    c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 152, column 1
    1 more example

    He is a political humbug, the greatest of all humbugs; a man who swaggers about London clubs and consults solemnly about his influence, and in the country is a nonentity.

    1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter XI, in Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book II, page 235

    Synonyms: flaunt, preen, swank, aura farm, boulevardier, cut a wide swath, cut it fat, cut round

  2. To boast or brag noisily; to bluster; to bully.

    To be great is not […] to swagger at our footmen.

    1698, Jeremy Collier, A Moral Essay upon Pride
    2 more examples

    For the common Soldier when he goes to the Market or Ale-house will offer this Money, and if it be refused, perhaps he will SWAGGER and HECTOR, and Threaten to Beat the BUTCHER or Ale-Wife, or take the Goods by Force, and throw them the bad HALF-PENCE.

    1724, “The Drapier’s Letters”, in Dublin and London, Jonathan Swift, published 1730, Letter 1, p. 14

    “They say there’s something wrong with our president!” Mr. Trump swaggered at his indoor Tulsa rally in June,[…]

    2020, Matt Flegenheimer, “A President’s Positive Test and the Year That Won’t Let Up”, in The New York Times
  3. To walk with a swaying motion.

    It's the injustice… he is so unjust— whiskey-blind, swaggering home at five.

    1959, Robert Lowell, “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage”, in Life Studies

In a sentence

What hempen home-ſpuns haue we ſwaggering here, / So neere the Cradle of the Faierie Queene?

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 152, column 1

Where it comes from

A frequentative form of swag (“to sway”), first attested in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595), see quotations.

Full entry for swagger →

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