to swagger into
- phrasal verb
- /ˈswæɡər ˈɪntu/
- They swaggered into the village.
Examples
-
Zarfo swaggered into the foyer.
Fiction book (1993) -
So it was unusual that she should have been around during the pre-"dawn" shift when Pug Joseph swaggered into the lounge.
Fiction book (1991) -
Moments later, the Wolf swaggered into town.
-
They swaggered into the village.
-
Zarfo swaggered into the foyer.
Synonyms
To walk or behave in a confident way to impress others
To act very confident and proud to get attention
Antonyms
How Confident
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from the constituents: 'swagger' (to walk proudly) + 'into' (indicating entry) yields 'enter in a proud/confident manner.' This motion/entrance composition is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Swagger into comes from the image of someone walking with wide, proud steps and chest forward, as if saying 'look at me'. So to swagger into a place means to enter looking 'confident' or a little 'arrogant'.