Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the act of shirking one’s duties, malingering.

1916		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 12 Dec. 5/5: ‘Lead-swinging,’ a word from Tommy’ s sklang dictionary [...] simply means passing to one’s best enjoyment the leaden hours, avoiding arduous tasks, and trying to dodge parade and fatigues.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 347: Leadswinging. Getting out of any kind of duty by malingering.
1935		Western Gaz. 7 June 2/5: Since he had become medical officer [...] he had not known of a single case of ‘lead swinging’ amongst the staff.
1946		Cornishman 21 Feb. n.p.: The new president [...] made a call to memebers [...] to pull their weight in the national interests. There must be no ‘lead-swinging’.
1968		Manchester Guardian Weekly 12 Sept. 9: ‘Lead swinging’ among the unemployed was confined to a very small minority and that the real problem was caused by the very low wages in some jobs compared with the scale of social security benefits.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1928		Aberdeen Jrnl 1 Nov. 9/7: The story of the days and ways of lead-swinging and futile clerks [...] is amusing.
1948		Essex Newsman 1 Oct. 1/6: The fun ranged from an Army sick parade, in which the M.O. offered a chair and a cigarette to the ‘lead-swinging’ recruit.
1981		W. Boyd Good Man in Africa 73: Who did Murray think he was talking to? Some lead-swinging undergraduate?