in full swing

Well underway and continuing at a fast pace. If you're not coming home for Christmas, you need to tell Mom because her planning is already in full swing. After a slow start, the convention is now in full swing.

Fig. at the peak of activity; moving fast or efficiently. (*Typically: be ~; move [into] ~; get [into] ~.) In the summer months, things really get into full swing around here. We go skiing in the mountains each winter. Things are in high gear there in November.

Also, in full cry. In full operation, at the highest level of activity. For example, After the strike it would be some time before production was in full swing, or His supporters were out in full cry. The first expression, dating from the mid-1800s, alludes to the vigorous movement of a swinging body. The second employs full cry in the sense of "vigorous pursuit," a usage dating from the late 1500s that may be dying out.

COMMON If something is in full swing, it is operating fully or has already been happening for some time, rather than being in its early stages. Twelve days after the hurricane, officials say recovery efforts are at last in full swing. While I was in Dieppe, a national dog show and a jazz festival were in full swing. Note: You can also say that something gets into full swing. As we left, the St Patrick's Day celebrations were getting into full swing in Donegall Place.

At the highest level of activity or operation.

Vigorously active. Various etymologists to the contrary, this term comes from a sixteenth-century use of swing for the course of a career or period of time. The only modern vestige of this meaning is in the cliché, which has survived. Indeed, it was already a cliché when George Meredith wrote (Evan Harrington, 1861), “A barrister in full swing of practice.”