Verb

(en verb)

To move or swing from side to side; or backward and forward; to rock.

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*

*:Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

To move or wield with the hand; to swing; to wield.

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*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

*:As sparkles from the anvil rise, / When heavy hammers on the wedge are swayed .

To influence or direct by power, authority, persuasion, or by moral force; to rule; to govern; to guide. Compare persuade .

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*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:This was the race / To sway the world, and land and sea subdue.

To cause to incline or swing to one side, or backward and forward; to bias; to turn; to bend; warp.

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*(John Tillotson) (1630-1694)

*:Let not temporal and little advantages sway you against a more durable interest.

(lb) To hoist (a mast or yard) into position.

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To be drawn to one side by weight or influence; to lean; to incline.

*(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)

*:The balance sways on our part.

To have weight or influence.

*(Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)

*:The example of sundry churchesdoth sway much.

To bear sway; to rule; to govern.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:Hadst thou swayed as kings should do.

Verb

(dangl)

to hang loosely with the ability to swing

* Hudibras

He'd rather on a gibbet dangle / Than miss his dear delight, to wrangle.

* Tennyson

From her lifted hand / Dangled a length of ribbon.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson

, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.}}

(intransitive, slang, ice hockey, lacrosse) The action of performing a move or deke with the puck in order to get past a defender or goalie; perhaps because of the resemblance to dangling the puck on a string.

To hang or trail something loosely.

To trail or follow around.

* 1833 , Miller's Modern Acting Drama

To dangle at the elbow of a wench who can't make up her mind to accept the common title of wife, till she has been courted a certain number of weeks — so the old blinker, her father, says.