Library / English Dictionary

SWOON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A spontaneous loss of consciousness caused by insufficient blood to the brain

Synonyms:

deliquium; faint; swoon; syncope

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("swoon" is a kind of...):

loss of consciousness (the occurrence of a loss of the ability to perceive and respond)

Derivation:

swoon (pass out from weakness, physical or emotional distress due to a loss of blood supply to the brain)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pass out from weakness, physical or emotional distress due to a loss of blood supply to the brain

Synonyms:

conk; faint; pass out; swoon

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "swoon" is one way to...):

black out; pass out; zonk out (lose consciousness due to a sudden trauma, for example)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

swoon (a spontaneous loss of consciousness caused by insufficient blood to the brain)

Credits

 Context examples: 

She clasped his hand harder, and looked at him pityingly, as if he were the injured one, and went on:—I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There was great alarm at first, until it was found that she was in a swoon, and that the swoon was yielding to the usual means of recovery; when the Doctor, who had lifted her head upon his knee, put her curls aside with his hand, and said, looking around: Poor Annie! She's so faithful and tender-hearted!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Here are trees about us, and I see them because I think I see them, but if I have swooned, or sleep, or am in wine, then, my thought having gone forth from me, lo the trees go forth also.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So exquisite was the pang of love and desire fulfilled that she uttered a low moan, relaxed her hands, and lay half-swooning in his arms.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As soon as I entered the house, my wife took me in her arms, and kissed me; at which, having not been used to the touch of that odious animal for so many years, I fell into a swoon for almost an hour.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The attendant tells me that he was quiet until just before dawn, and that then he began to get uneasy, and at length violent, until at last he fell into a paroxysm which exhausted him so that he swooned into a sort of coma.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

From my swoon, I first awoke to a consciousness of her compassionate tears, her words of hope and peace, her gentle face bending down as from a purer region nearer Heaven, over my undisciplined heart, and softening its pain.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was in moments like this that she felt to the uttermost the greatness of her love for Martin, for it was almost a swoon of delight to her to feel his strong arms about her, holding her tightly, hurting her with the grip of their fervor.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

On one occasion, when an execution had just been put in, coming home through some chance as early as six o'clock, I saw her lying (of course with a twin) under the grate in a swoon, with her hair all torn about her face; but I never knew her more cheerful than she was, that very same night, over a veal cutlet before the kitchen fire, telling me stories about her papa and mama, and the company they used to keep.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When the Jazz History of the World was over girls were putting their heads on men's shoulders in a puppyish, convivial way, girls were swooning backward playfully into men's arms, even into groups knowing that some one would arrest their falls—but no one swooned backward on Gatsby and no French bob touched Gatsby's shoulder and no singing quartets were formed with Gatsby's head for one link.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)