Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
swing the lead en · VERB
Meanings
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(intransitive) To avoid work, especially by pretending to be ill; to shirk, to malinger.
Though he was by no means inclined to help carry a gas-cylinder on a pole, while watching the working party fall in on the road that night, Bourne felt rather out of it; he felt as though he were swinging the lead.
1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 93:I said, ‘Well, how d'you like having to do some work for a change, instead of swinging the lead at Fort Hommet?’
1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 129:
Forms
Relateds
dodge the column