What is "swift"

Pine \Pine\, n. [AS. p[=i]n, L. pinus.]

1. (Bot.) Any tree of the coniferous genus Pinus. See Pinus.

   Note: There are about twenty-eight species in the United States, of which the white pine ( Pinus Strobus), the Georgia pine ( Pinus australis), the red pine ( Pinus resinosa), and the great West Coast sugar pine ( Pinus Lambertiana) are among the most valuable. The Scotch pine or fir, also called Norway or Riga pine ( Pinus sylvestris), is the only British species. The nut pine is any pine tree, or species of pine, which bears large edible seeds. See Pinon. [1913 Webster] The spruces, firs, larches, and true cedars, though formerly considered pines, are now commonly assigned to other genera.

2. The wood of the pine tree.

3. A pineapple. Ground pine. (Bot.) See under Ground. Norfolk Island pine (Bot.), a beautiful coniferous tree, the Araucaria excelsa. Pine barren, a tract of infertile land which is covered with pines. [Southern U.S.] Pine borer (Zo["o]l.), any beetle whose larv[ae] bore into pine trees. Pine finch. (Zo["o]l.) See Pinefinch, in the Vocabulary. Pine grosbeak (Zo["o]l.), a large grosbeak ( Pinicola enucleator), which inhabits the northern parts of both hemispheres. The adult male is more or less tinged with red. Pine lizard (Zo["o]l.), a small, very active, mottled gray lizard ( Sceloporus undulatus), native of the Middle States; -- called also swift, brown scorpion, and alligator. Pine marten. (Zo["o]l.)

   1. A European weasel ( Mustela martes), called also sweet marten, and yellow-breasted marten.

   2. The American sable. See Sable.

      Pine moth (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of small tortricid moths of the genus Retinia, whose larv[ae] burrow in the ends of the branchlets of pine trees, often doing great damage.

      Pine mouse (Zo["o]l.), an American wild mouse ( Arvicola pinetorum), native of the Middle States. It lives in pine forests.

      Pine needle (Bot.), one of the slender needle-shaped leaves of a pine tree. See Pinus.

      Pine-needle wool. See Pine wool (below).

      Pine oil, an oil resembling turpentine, obtained from fir and pine trees, and used in making varnishes and colors.

      Pine snake (Zo["o]l.), a large harmless North American snake ( Pituophis melanoleucus). It is whitish, covered with brown blotches having black margins. Called also bull snake. The Western pine snake ( Pituophis Sayi) is chestnut-brown, mottled with black and orange.

      Pine tree (Bot.), a tree of the genus Pinus; pine.

      Pine-tree money, money coined in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, and so called from its bearing a figure of a pine tree. The most noted variety is the pine tree shilling.

      Pine weevil (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of weevils whose larv[ae] bore in the wood of pine trees. Several species are known in both Europe and America, belonging to the genera Pissodes, Hylobius, etc.

      Pine wool, a fiber obtained from pine needles by steaming them. It is prepared on a large scale in some of the Southern United States, and has many uses in the economic arts; -- called also pine-needle wool, and pine-wood wool.

Old English swift "moving quickly," perhaps originally "turning quickly," from Proto-Germanic swip- (see swivel (n.)). Related: Swiftly; swiftness.

type of bird (several species of the family Cypselidæ, resembling swallows), 1660s, from swift (adj.) in reference to its swift flight. Regarded as a bird of ill-omen, if not downright demonic, probably for its shrill cry. The name earlier had been given to several small fast lizards (1520s).

a. fast; quick; rapid. adv. (context obsolete poetic English) Swiftly. n. 1 (context obsolete English) The current of a stream. 2 A small plain-colored bird of the family Apodidae that resembles a swallow and is noted for its rapid flight. Other common names for the birds of this family include swiftlet, needletail and spinetail. 3 Some lizard of the genus (taxlink Sceloporus genus noshow=1). 4 A moth of the family ''(taxlink Hepialidae family noshow=1)'', (vern: swift moth), ghost moth.

adj. moving very fast; "fleet of foot"; "the fleet scurrying of squirrels"; "a swift current"; "swift flight of an arrow"; "a swift runner" [syn: fleet]

Swifts are birds in the order Apodiformes.

Swift means quick in English, and may also refer to:

Swift is a tiny lunar impact crater that is located in the northwestern part of the Mare Crisium, in the northeast part of the Moon's near side. Within two crater diameters to the south is the larger crater Peirce. Swift was previously designated Peirce B before being named by the IAU.

This formation is circular and bowl-shaped, with a small floor at the midpoint of the sloping interior walls. It is a symmetrical crater with little appearance of wear from minor impacts.

This crater has been incorrectly named 'Graham' on some maps.

The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any of the passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae .

Resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.

The family name, Apodidae, is derived from the Greek ἄπους (ápous), meaning "footless", a reference to the small, weak legs of these most aerial of birds. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet.

Some species of swifts are among the fastest animals on the planet, with some of the fastest measured flight speeds of any bird.

Swift as a crater may refer to:

• Swift (lunar crater)
• Swift (Deimian crater)

Swift (Shen Li-Min) is a fictional comic book superhero in the Wildstorm universe, published by DC Comics. Swift first appeared in Stormwatch #28 and was created by Jeff Mariotte and Ron Lim. She is currently a member of The Authority.

Swift is a band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, formed by Gary Forsyth, Billy Deal, Mikey Gentle, and Jamie King in 1998. Taylor Mabe later joined the band in 2003. As of October 2005, Swift decided to take a hiatus while members focus on other areas of their individual lives. On November 9, 2009 they announced a 10-year reunion show:December 19, 2009 at The Millennium Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On December 7, 2009 the band uploaded a new song titled "Forest Of Death" on the Official Swift website

Swift crater is a crater on Mars's moon Deimos. It is about in diameter. Swift crater is named after Jonathan Swift, whose 1726 book Gulliver's Travels predicted the existence of two moons of Mars. Swift crater is one of two named features on Deimos, the other being Voltaire crater. On 10 July 2006, Mars Global Surveyor took an image of Deimos from away showing Swift crater.

A swift is a tool used to hold a hank of yarn while it is being wound off. It has an adjustable diameter so that it can hold hanks of many sizes, and rotates around a central rod. They are generally made out of wood or metal, however other materials may also be used. In the 18th and 19th centuries, swifts were sometimes made of whale ivory and they are now sought-after antiques. Swifts are not used very much in the textile industry, but are used more by knitters and crocheters who buy their yarn in hank form. The swift allows for easy balling, without the yarn getting tangled and knotted.

Swift was a British weekly comics magazine published by in the UK as a junior companion to the Eagle. It was founded by the Rev. Marcus Morris and launched by Hulton Press in 1954. After Hultons were sold to Odhams Press in 1959, Swift was merged into the Eagle in 1963.

Swift is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Allan Swift (born 1935), U.S. politician
• Bill Swift (born 1961), baseball player
• Bill Swift (1930s pitcher) (1908–1969), baseball player
• Catherine Swift, President and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business
• Charles Swift, defense counsel for Salim Ahmed Hamdan
• Clive Swift (born 1936), British actor
• David Swift (director) (1919–2001), American screenwriter, animator, director, and producer
• David Swift (actor) (1931–2016), British actor
• Edward D. Swift, U.S. astronomer
• George R. Swift (1887–1972), U.S. politician
• Graham Swift (born 1949), British novelist
• Gustavus Franklin Swift (1839–1903), U.S. entrepreneur, founder of Swift & Company meatpacking plants
• Henry Adoniram Swift (1823–1896), U.S. politician
• Innis P. Swift (1882–1953) American World War II general
• Jane Swift (born 1965), American politician
• John Franklin Swift (1829–1891), American politician and author
• Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), Irish author, satirist, political pamphleteer and cleric
• Joseph Gardner Swift (1783–1865), American army officer
• Justin Swift (born 1975), American football player
• Katherine Swift (1956–2004) Artist and ceramicist
• Kay Swift (1897–1993), American composer
• Lewis Swift (1820–1913), U.S. astronomer
• Morrison I. Swift (1856–1946) U.S. social theorist, organizer and activist.
• Philetus Swift (1763–1828), New York politician
• Parton Swift (1876–1952), New York politician and judge
• Patrick Swift (1927–83), Irish painter
• Richard Swift (disambiguation), several people
• Robert Swift (born 1985), basketball player
• R.B. Swift, American journalist
• Stephanie Swift, adult actress
• Stromile Swift (born 1979), basketball player
• Taylor Swift (born 1989), American country music singer-songwriter and actress
• Todd Swift (born 1966), Canadian poet
• William Henry Swift (1800–1879), American and railroad executive
• William Swift (born 1848), governor of Guam and USN Rear Admiral

Swift is an implicitly parallel programming language that allows writing scripts that distribute program execution across distributed computing resources, including clusters, clouds, grids, and supercomputers. Swift implementations are open-source software under the Apache License, version 2.0.

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language developed by Apple Inc. for iOS, OS X, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux. Swift is designed to work with Apple's Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and the large body of extant Objective-C (ObjC) code written for Apple products. Swift is intended to be more resilient to erroneous code ("safer") than Objective-C, and more concise. It is built with the LLVM compiler framework included in Xcode 6 and later and, on platforms other than Linux, uses the Objective-C runtime library, which allows C, Objective-C, C++ and Swift code to run within one program.

Swift supports the core concepts that made Objective-C flexible, notably dynamic dispatch, widespread late binding, extensible programming and similar features. These features also have well known performance and safety trade-offs, which Swift was designed to address. For safety, Swift introduced a system that helps address common programming errors like null pointers, and introduced syntactic sugar to avoid the pyramid of doom that can result. For performance issues, Apple has invested considerable effort in aggressive optimization that can flatten out method calls and accessors to eliminate this overhead. More fundamentally, Swift has added the concept of protocol extensibility, an extensibility system that can be applied to types, structs and classes. Apple promotes this as a real change in programming paradigms they term "protocol-oriented programming".

Swift was introduced at Apple's 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). It underwent an upgrade to version 1.2 during 2014 and a more major upgrade to Swift 2 at WWDC 2015. Initially a proprietary language, version 2.2 was made open-source software and made available under Apache License 2.0 on December 3, 2015, for Apple's platforms and Linux. IBM announced its Swift Sandbox website, which allows developers to write Swift code in one pane and display output in another.

A second free implementation of Swift that targets Cocoa, Microsoft's Common Language Infrastructure ( .NET), and the Java and Android platform exists as part of the Elements Compiler from RemObjects Software. Since the language is open-source, there are prospects of it being ported to the web. Some web frameworks have already been developed, such as Kitura by IBM and the open-source Perfect .