Nearby Words

swan-upping

[swon-uhp-ing]

swan-up·ping

[swon-uhp-ing]
noun British.
1.
the taking up of young swans to mark them with nicks on the beak for identification.
2.
an annual expedition for this purpose on the Thames.

Origin:
1800–10; swan1 + upping (up + -ing1)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Swan-upping is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
swan-upping
 
n
1.  the practice or action of marking nicks in swans' beaks as a sign of ownership
2.  the annual swan-upping of royal cygnets on the River Thames
 
[C16: from up (in the archaic sense: to catch and mark a swan)]

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