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Paddle vs Swim - What's the difference?

paddle | swim |

As a noun paddle

is a two-handed, single-bladed oar used to propel a canoe or a small boat.

As a verb paddle

is to propel something through water with a paddle, oar, hands, etc or paddle can be (british) to walk or dabble playfully in shallow water, especially at the seaside.

As an initialism swim is

someone who isn't me; someone who isn't myself.

paddle

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) padell (1407, "small spade"), from Medieval Latin padela, perhaps from (etyl) patella "pan, plate", the diminutive of patina

Noun

(en noun)
  • A two-handed, single-bladed oar used to propel a canoe or a small boat.
  • A double-bladed oar used for kayaking.
  • Time spent on paddling.
  • We had a nice paddle this morning.
  • A slat of a paddleboat's wheel.
  • A paddlewheel.
  • A blade of a waterwheel.
  • (video games, dated) A game controller with a round wheel used to control player movement along one axis of the video screen.
  • (British) A meandering walk or dabble through shallow water, especially at the seaside.
  • A kitchen utensil shaped like a paddle and used for mixing, beating etc.
  • A bat-shaped spanking implement
  • ''The paddle practically ousted the British cane as the spanker's attribute in the independent US
  • A ping-pong bat.
  • A flat limb of an aquatic animal, adapted for swimming.
  • ''A sea turtle's paddles make it swim almost as fast as land tortoises are slow
  • In a sluice, a panel that controls the flow of water.
  • A group of inerts
  • A handheld defibrillation/cardioversion electrode
  • Derived terms
    * paddler * paddleboat * paddle board * paddlewheel * paddle steamer * paddling * dog paddle * traffic paddle
    See also
    * oar

    Verb

  • To propel something through water with a paddle, oar, hands, etc.
  • * L'Estrange
  • as the men were paddling for their lives
  • * (John Gay)
  • while paddling ducks the standing lake desire
  • * 1884 : (Mark Twain), (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Chapter IX
  • Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe
  • To row a boat with less than one's full capacity.
  • To spank with a paddle.
  • To pat or stroke amorously or gently.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to be paddling palms and pinching fingers.
  • To tread upon; to trample.
  • Etymology 2

    Recorded since 1530, probably cognate with Low German paddeln "to tramp about," frequent. of padjen "to tramp, to run in short steps," from pad (also in Dutch dialects)

    Verb

  • (British) To walk or dabble playfully in shallow water, especially at the seaside.
  • To toddle
  • (archaic) To toy or caress using hands or fingers
  • swim

    English

    Verb

  • (archaic) To float.
  • * 2 Kings VI:6 (KJV)
  • And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim .
  • *Wm. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
  • Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark! The storm is up and all is on the hazard.
  • To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.}}
  • To traverse (a specific body of water, or a specific distance) by swimming; or, to utilize a specific swimming stroke; or, to compete in a specific swimming event.
  • ''For exercise, we like to swim laps around the pool.
    I want to swim the 200-yard breaststroke in the finals.
  • * Dryden
  • Sometimes he thought to swim the stormy main.
  • (uncommon) To cause to swim.
  • to swim a horse across a river
    Half of the guinea pigs were swum daily.
  • To be overflowed or drenched.
  • * Psalm VI:6 (KJV)
  • I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
  • * Thomson
  • Sudden the ditches swell, the meadows swim .
  • To immerse in water to make the lighter parts float.
  • to swim wheat in order to select seed

    Derived terms

    * sink or swim * swim like a fish * swimmer

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act or instance of swimming.
  • I'm going for a swim .
  • The sound, or air bladder, of a fish.
  • (UK) A part of a stream much frequented by fish.
  • Derived terms

    * in the swim