†swatley. ‘Ay mun cut off the lugs and naes [ears and nose] on ’em [of him]; he’ll be a pretty swatley fellow, bawt [without] lugs and naes’, Otway, Cheats of Scapin, iii (Scapin, in a Lancs. dialect). Meaning unexplained.
sweam, faintness, attack of dizziness; ‘The slothfull sweames of sluggardye’, Mirror for Mag., Iago, Lenvoy, st. 1; ‘Sweam or swaim, subita aegrotatio’, Gouldman. ‘Sweem’ is a Somerset word for a state of giddiness or faintness, see EDD. (s.v. Swim, sb.2). Cognate with OE. swīma, dizziness, giddiness (B. T.). See [sweme].
sweet-breasted, sweet-voiced, having a sweet voice. Beaumont and Fl., Love’s Cure, iii. 1 (Alguazier).
swelt, to faint, swoon; ‘In weary woes to swelt’, Gascoigne (Nares); swelt, pt. t., Spenser, F. Q. iv. 7. 9; vi. 12. 21. Still in use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Swelt, vb.1 2). ME. swelten, to faint, languish (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1356); to die (id., Tr. and Cr. iii. 347). OE. sweltan, to die.
swelter, to exude; ‘Toad . . . that has . . . swelter’d venom’, Macbeth, iv. 1. 8. In prov. use in the sense of a profuse perspiration, see EDD. (s.v. Swelter, 7).
swelth, a whirlpool; ‘A deadly gulfe . . . With foule black swelth’, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 31; ‘Rude Acheron . . . with swelth as black as hell’, id., 69, see Nares. ME. swelth of a water, ‘vorago’ (Prompt. EETS. 445, see note, no. 2179).
sweme, grief; ‘His hert began to melt For veray sweme of this swemeful tale’, Lydgate (Halliwell). ME. sweem, grief (Prompt., Harl. MS.); swem (Gen. and Ex. 1961). Cp. OE. ā-swǣman, to be grieved, ‘tabescere’ (Ps. cxviii. 158 (Lambeth)). See [sweam].
sweven, a dream. Morte Arthur, leaf 27. 1; bk. i, c. 13; Ordinary, Old Play, x. 236 (Nares). ME. sweven (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 28). OE. swefn.
swill-bowl, a heavy drinker; spelt swiel bolle. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Cicero, § 65.
swinge, to beat, thrash, lash, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 5 (Valentine); Two Gent. ii. 1. 91; King John, ii. 1. 288; 2 Hen. IV, v. 4. 21; to lash, as with a long tail, Milton, Nativ. 172; sway, tyranny, Mirror for Mag., Induction, st. 26. In prov. use in Scotland and England in the sense of to beat, thrash (EDD.). ME. swyngyn, also, swengyn, to shake (Prompt.). OE. swengan.