Definition of "swan" []

• Any of various large aquatic birds of the family Anatidae chiefly of the genera Cygnus and Olor, having webbed feet, a long slender neck, and usually white plumage. (noun)
• See Cygnus. (noun)
• Chiefly British To travel around from place to place: "Swanning around Europe nowadays, are we?” ( Jeffrey Archer). (verb-intransitive)
• Chiefly Southern U.S. To declare; swear. Used in the phrase I swan as an interjection. See Regional Note at vum. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "For instance, use of the term swan-upping is always greeted with a smile in England."
• "And something about our culture too, since people seem to assume that scientists are much smarter than non-scientists, even though that isn't necessarily the case (I'd say maybe differently smart). bamboo: Yeah, the the "ugly duckling" smart woman who takes off her glasses and takes her hair out of a bun to become a swan is a movie cliché that I hope I never see again (and I assume you mean that your wife is hot, not ugly with no social skills.) ed t: Doesn't his co-worker Leslie fit that bill?"
• ""Let fly, then," says I, "in the name of God!" and with that I fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces were now loaded with what I call swan-shot, or small pistol-bullets, we found only two drop; but so many were wounded that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and most of them miserably wounded; whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead."