[swich] 
,| 1. | a slender, flexible shoot, rod, etc., used esp. in whipping or disciplining. |
| 2. | an act of whipping or beating with or as with such an object; a stroke, lash, or whisking movement. |
| 3. | a slender growing shoot, as of a plant. |
| 4. | a hairpiece consisting of a bunch or tress of long hair or some substitute, fastened together at one end and worn by women to supplement their own hair. |
| 5. | Electricity. a device for turning on or off or directing an electric current or for making or breaking a circuit. |
| 6. | Railroads. a track structure for diverting moving trains or rolling stock from one track to another, commonly consisting of a pair of movable rails. |
| 7. | a turning, shifting, or changing: a switch of votes to another candidate. |
| 8. | Bridge. a change to a suit other than the one played or bid previously. |
| 9. | Basketball. a maneuver in which two teammates on defense shift assignments so that each guards the opponent usually guarded by the other. |
| 10. | a tuft of hair at the end of the tail of some animals, as of the cow or lion. |
| 11. | to whip or beat with a switch or the like; lash: He switched the boy with a cane. |
| 12. | to move, swing, or whisk (a cane, a fishing line, etc.) with a swift, lashing stroke. |
| 13. | to shift or exchange: The two girls switched their lunch boxes. |
| 14. | to turn, shift, or divert: to switch conversation from a painful subject. |
| 15. | Electricity. to connect, disconnect, or redirect (an electric circuit or the device it serves) by operating a switch (often fol. by off or on): I switched on a light. |
| 16. | Railroads.
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| 17. | Movies, Television. to shift rapidly from one camera to another in order to change camera angles or shots. |
| 18. | to strike with or as with a switch. |
| 19. | to change direction or course; turn, shift, or change. |
| 20. | to exchange or replace something with another: He used to smoke this brand of cigarettes, but he switched. |
| 21. | to move or sway back and forth, as a cat's tail. |
| 22. | to be shifted, turned, etc., by means of a switch. |
| 23. | Basketball. to execute a switch. |
| 24. | Bridge. to lead a card of a suit different from the suit just led by oneself or one's partner. |
| 25. | asleep at the switch, Informal. failing to perform one's duty, missing an opportunity, etc., because of negligence or inattention: He lost the contract because he was asleep at the switch. |
asleep at the switch
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switch
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switch
See swap.
To move funds out of one mutual fund and into another mutual fund. See also telephone switching.
asleep at the switch
Also, asleep at the wheel. Inattentive, not doing one's job, as in At the critical moment the watchman was asleep at the switch and only called the fire department when it was too late. This term came from 19th-century American railroading, when it was the trainman's duty to switch cars from one track to another by means of manually operated levers. Should he fail to do so, trains could collide. It was later transferred to any lack of alertness. The wheel in the variant is a steering wheel; similarly disastrous results are implied.
