Meaning of swing the lead | Babel Free

Definitions

To avoid work, especially by pretending to be ill; to shirk, to malinger.

intransitive

Examples

“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.”

“I said, ‘Well, how d'you like having to do some work for a change, instead of swinging the lead at Fort Hommet?’”

CEFR level