swing for

verb — 3 senses

verb

Etymology From the sense of "swing" meaning to be hung by the neck as capital punishment.

Excessive, Informal To be punished severely.

To be hanged for a crime.

Swing for someone: To be hanged for murdering someone.

I'll swing for him, when I get out. Katherine Lynch reported in “Minor Matters: Willing to "Swing for Him."”, in Weekly Mail, Cardiff, 20 June 1908, page 10

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.