Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to swing from branch to branch

to swing from branch to branch

1 3.8
Move quickly through trees like monkeys by holding and letting go of branches
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : balancearse de rama en rama
  • He watched as the squirrel swing from branch to branch in pursuit of its friend.

Examples

  • I'm like a monkey swinging from branch to branch through the Ninth Avenue Jungle.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Ignore the fences built by the guilds and swing from branch to branch.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The monkey swing from branch to branch, expertly navigating through the trees.

  • Children love to swing from branch to branch in the park's large tree.

Surface Forms

swing from branch to branch infinitive
swinging from branch to branch present participle
swings from branch to branch third person singular
swung from branch to branch past
swung from branch to branch past participle

Morphology

swing + from + branch + to + branch

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from the constituents: 'swing' (to move while hanging) combined with the spatial pattern 'from ... to ...' plus 'branch' clearly describes moving between branches. This motion verb + directional prepositional construction is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English composition, so a B1 learner who knows the words would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Swing from branch to branch comes from watching animals like monkeys and gibbons. They swing by holding one branch, letting go and grabbing the next branch, so the picture explains why the phrase means 'to move quickly through trees by holding and releasing branches'.