Synonyms for switch
Antonyms for switch
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR SWITCH
Caradoc reached for it, followed it with his hand and presently turned a switch.
Then, when he was satisfied that everything was ready, he reversed the switch.
As he pulled out the switch, the aeronaut gave a glance at the apparatus.
Governor Drake sprang to switch it on, and tried to explain to Smithy as he did so.
Then, as abruptly as light goes on when a switch is thrown, the noise vanished.
Sutter was about to switch on the set when the door buzzer sounded.
Each of the Russians closed a switch on the knapsack which he wore.
Then, as if trying to switch of his mood, she changes the subject abruptly.
The locks open automatically and let the car into the ocean when it strikes the switch.
Start — When this switch is operated, the computer will start.
WORD ORIGIN
1590s, "slender riding whip," probably from a Flemish or Low German word akin to Hanoverian swutsche, a variant of Low German zwukse "long thin stick, switch," from Germanic base *swih- (cf. Old High German zwec "wooden peg," German Zweck "aim, design," originally "peg as a target," Zwick "wooden peg"), perhaps connected with PIE root *swei- "to swing, bend, to turn."
The meaning "device for changing the direction of something or making or breaking a connection" is first recorded 1797. "The peg sense suits the mech(anical) applications" [Weekley], and these senses may be a direct borrowing from those senses in Continental Germanic languages rather than a continuation of the "pliant wand" sense. The meaning "a change, a reversal, an exchange, a substitution" is first recorded 1920.