She was standing in the aisle of the supermarket. She couldn’t decide what kind of cheese to buy. The names of the different cheeses made it difficult to decide. As if the words for the individual cheeses exerted more power of persuasion than the taste of the cheese itself.  Behind her a conversation started, and she looked over her shoulder. Two young men were standing facing each other in the aisle. They obviously knew each other and both were smiling broadly.

First young man: Hey, you are swagged out.

Second young man: Yes, I am. Aren’t I just?

First young man:  You are! You are!

Second young man: I am. I’m swagged out.

First young man:  Yes, you are! Swagged out.

She had turned her back on the young men while she listened to their conversation. An image came to mind. A cartoon, maybe something she’d seen on television as a child. It was a burglar wearing a T-shirt with black and white stripes. Over his shoulder was a stick and on the end of it a bag. Written on the bag was the word swag. She wondered if that was a clue. Was swagged connected to something that had been acquired unlawfully or dishonestly? But then she wondered, since it was a verb, might it have something to do with swagger. That confident way of walking, that sense of self-importance. Although, given the fact that the two young men were just standing and talking and not actually moving, she wondered if perhaps that wasn’t the meaning or at least what they were trying to say. It was also the use of the word ‘out’ which made her suspect that this might be a phrasal verb, such as ‘to swag out’. This would be the verb to swag, followed by a preposition in this case ‘out’. She could think of phrasal verbs which use the preposition ‘out’ such as to ‘run out’, as in when something is finished or all gone. But in this context and in the way the two men were talking could it be that the proposition out was more like it was used in the phrasal verb ‘to stand out’, as in, to be really noticeable. This would make more sense. She also thought of ‘to splash out’ which might suggest that they have spent a lot of money on their appearance. It was clear to her from the prosody of the conversation, the stress and intonation, that one was giving the other some sort of compliment. The register of the conversation was definitely informal so it could be safe to assume that this was some sort of slang expression. ‘Decked out’ came to her mind and again the idea of appearance seemed to be on the right track. This got her thinking. Might it be a verb followed by an adjective. In this case it would be, the verb to be, followed by the adjective swagged out. Perhaps one of the young men was wearing something that was swagged out. However, she was pretty certain that it was the young man as a whole and not just a single item he was wearing, that was being commented on. But how to resolve this? She wondered if she could just go and ask the two young men, about this exchange. But then it occurred to her that it might appear she had been eavesdropping on the conversation. They might have been offended by that even though they were talking in a very public place with people nearby. But you never know she thought, sometimes people are so involved in talking to someone that they forget anyone else might be listening. Let alone trying to work out exactly what they mean from the words they are using. There again, the two young men might have found it funny that this woman, someone from a different generation, wanted them to explain a phrase that they were using. But by now she thought, the moment had passed for her to interrupt their conversation. She would just have to do with her own best guess. It was definitely to do with the appearance of one of the young men and from the tone of their conversation she took it to be favourable and complementary. She could always check it later and find out if she were right. In the meantime, she had to make a decision about the cheese.