swan dive
3
5.1
- noun
- /swɑn daɪv/
:
salto de cisne
- I can do a swan dive and a fairly good jackknife.
- take a swan dive
- perfect swan dive
Examples
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- Watch me do a swan dive!
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I can do the swan dive.
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And it did a swan dive right into the river.
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You take a swan dive into an empty pool, and I'm stupid?
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After weeks of practice, she finally perfected her swan dive at the local swimming pool.
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The diver impressed the crowd with her graceful swan dive before breaking the surface of the water.
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He learned the swan dive in his swimming class, mastering the technique of arching his back and stretching out his arms.
Synonyms
104
1.0
A headfirst jump into water from a high board
A dive where the diver bends the back and stretches the arms before entering the water
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a 'swan dive' is a type of dive that looks like a swan, combining 'swan' (the bird) with 'dive' (a plunge into water). This straightforward noun+noun description follows common compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the intended type of dive.
Etymology
The noun swan dive comes from a simple picture: when a diver bends their back and stretches their arms they look like a swan moving through the air, so the jump is called a dive like a swan. That's why swan dive means 'a dive in which the diver arches the back and stretches out the arms'.