Word Confusion: Swat versus Swot

Plural for the noun: swats
Gerund: swatting

Third person present verb: swats
Past tense or past participle: swatted
Dialectical past tense or past participle for sweat: swat
Present participle: swatting

Alternative spelling when used as a transitive verb: swot

Plural for the noun: swots
Gerund: swotting

Third person present verb: swots
Past tense or past participle: swotted
Present participle: swotting

Alternative spelling when used as a transitive verb: swat

• Any group of specialists brought in to solve a difficult or urgent problem

Noun:
A sharp slap or blow ²

[Baseball] A powerfully hit ball

Verb:
Hit or crush something, especially an insect with a sharp blow from a flat object ²

Verb, transitive:
Hit, slap, or smack someone with a sharp blow ²

[Baseball] To hit a ball powerfully, usually for a long distance

Noun:
[Education; British] A person who studies hard, especially one regarded as spending too much time studying ²

• Grind

Hard study or hard work

• Concentrated effort

[Negative] A student who studies hard

Verb:
[Education; often followed by up] To study a subject intensively, as for an examination ²

• Cram

Verb, intransitive:
[British; slang; object of study indicated by up on] To study or work hard ²

Verb, transitive:
To hit ³

• Slap
• Smack

They called SWAT in on a domestic dispute.

Only the big cities like New York maintain a full-time SWAT team.

Noun:
The dog gave the hedgehog a sideways swat.

Once, he gave me a piece of a chocolate bar, but twice, he took a swat at me.

Would it have been impossible to track down one of the “mouthy suspects” who might have been on the receiving end of one of those swats?

At that point, the tiger, with what looked to be a playful swat, swatted at Roy.

Kenji had to duck a swat from the eldest boy, but kept laughing.

It was a swat into the outfield.

Verb, intransitive:
Stop swatting at that fly. You’re making me nuts.

She was swatting at George.

He sat there for several hours, dozing, snoring, and swatting at flies that settled on him.

He cast his line, swatting at the few flies that swarmed his sweaty forehead.

Verb, transitive:
I swatted a mosquito that had landed on my wrist.

I swatted a fly on the bus, and I got to wondering what happens to these souls once you’ve absorbed them?

Nick moved to put his arm around Tori, but she swatted him away.

I laughed, trying to swat him, and almost falling over.

He swatted it out of the ballpark.

When assembling a business plan, you should always do a SWOT analysis.

An individual can do their own SWOT analysis to help focus on a career.

Noun:
Every time he begged off a night at the pub — saying he had to study — his mates teased him for being a swot.

Paul was always something of a swot.

Mrs Franklin was proud of her daughter being such a swot.

Verb, intransitive:
You should swot up on your French before traveling to Paris.

I had to swot up on my Latin verbs before the final exam.

The kids are swotting for exams.

He needs to swot up on physics.

I gotta swot for exams.

Verb, transitive:
She swotted him over the head with a rolled-up magazine.

In other news, I’m listening to some popular music and swotting tiny ants off me while sitting at John’s computer.

Freya stood on her toes and swotted him across the head.

Swiftly swotting the bug with a rolled-up newspaper would have been the best course of action.

1. 1980s, an acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics.
2. Early 17th century, in the sense sit down is a northern English dialect and the US variant of squat.

1. 1990s acronym from strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
2. 1840–50, dialectical variant of sweat, from the Middle English swot, which is from the Old English swāt.
3. It was first recorded in 1790–1800, originally as a variant of squat.