swagger

Etymology 1

A frequentative form of swag (“to sway”), first attested in 1590, in A Midsummer Night's Dream III.i.79: * PUCK: What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here?

verb

1. To behave (especially to walk or carry oneself) in a pompous, superior manner.
2. To boast or brag noisily; to bluster; to bully.
   To be great is not […] to swagger at our footmen. 1698, Jeremy Collier, A Moral Essay upon Pride
   For the common Soldier when he goes to the Market or Ale-house will offer this Money, and if it be refused, perhaps he will SWAGGER and HECTOR, and Threaten to Beat the BUTCHER or Ale-Wife, or take the Goods by Force, and throw them the bad HALF-PENCE. 1724, “The Drapier’s Letters”, in Dublin and London, Jonathan Swift, published 1730, Letter 1, p. 14
   “They say there’s something wrong with our president!” Mr. Trump swaggered at his indoor Tulsa rally in June,[…] 2020, Matt Flegenheimer, “A President’s Positive Test and the Year That Won’t Let Up”, in The New York Times
3. To walk with a swaying motion.
   It's the injustice… he is so unjust— whiskey-blind, swaggering home at five. 1959, Robert Lowell, “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage”, in Life Studies

noun

1. Confidence, pride.
   After spending so much of the season looking upwards, the swashbuckling style and swagger of early season Spurs was replaced by uncertainty and frustration against a Norwich side who had the quality and verve to take advantage April 9, 2012, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport
2. A bold or arrogant strut.
3. A prideful boasting or bragging.
   Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their lives on the shattered dreams of others. 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, On the Mindless Menace of Violence

adj

1. (slang, archaic) Fashionable; trendy.
   It is to be a very swagger affair, with notables from every part of Europe, and they seem determined that no one connected with a newspaper shall be admitted. 1899, Robert Barr, Jennie Baxter, Journalist
   15 March, 1896, Ernest Rutherford, letter to Mary Newton Mrs J.J. [Thomson] looked very well and was dressed very swagger and made a very fine hostess.
   Mrs. Morton was well known for her Americanisms, her swagger dinner parties, and beautiful Paris gowns. 1908, Baroness Orczy, The Old Man in the Corner

Etymology 2

noun

1. (Australia, New Zealand, historical) Synonym of swagman
   She looked down in her half-dreaming state and thought they might be swaggers. There were lots of them that year, camped out on the riverbank netting for whitebait, then fanning out around the streets selling their catch door to door. 2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, page 66