swing the lead
"swing-the-lead" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“swing the lead” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To avoid work, especially by pretending to be ill; to shirk, to malinger.
Corpus desk
Index EN-swing-the-lead · swing the lead · English
swing the lead · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | swing the lead |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “swing the lead” in English
Rare enough to double-check
swing the lead is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To avoid work, especially by pretending to be ill; to shirk, to malinger.".
swing the lead doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is swing the lead, spelled S-W-I-N-G- -T-H-E- -L-E-A-D.
Definition
- 1To avoid work, especially by pretending to be ill; to shirk, to malinger.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how swing the lead appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Though he was by no means inclined to help carry a gas-cylinder on a pole, while watching the working party fall in on the road that night, Bourne felt rather out of it; he felt as though he were swinging the lead.
I said, ‘Well, how d'you like having to do some work for a change, instead of swinging the lead at Fort Hommet?’
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.