▪ I. swaying, vbl. n.
(ˈsweɪɪŋ)
[f. sway v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb sway; movement to and fro; vacillation; influencing, controlling, etc.
| a 1665 J. Goodwin Being filled with the Spirit (1867) 340 For the swaying and ordering of our judgments in the question in hand. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. ii. ii, Bread not to be had except by Ticket from the Mayor,..after long swaying, with firm grip, on the chain of the Queue. 1849 Kingsley Misc. (1860) II. 275 The swaying of the fir boughs in the gale. 1850 H. Martineau Hist. Peace iv. xiv. II. 200 His life had been a swaying between contemplation and action. 1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle L. iv. 132 The low murmur and swaying to and fro of the dense crowd. |
2. swaying of or in the back: the condition of being swayed in the back (sway v. 5 b) or sway-backed. Also back-swaying.
| 1598 Florio, Feruto, a disease in a horse called the swaying of the neck [sic]. 1704 Dict. Rust. (1726) s.v. Sway'd, Swaying in the Back, a Distemper in Horses that comes many ways. c 1720 W. Gibson Farrier's Guide ii. lxviii. (1738) 225 By a Swaying of the Back is properly to be understood a stretching and relaxation of the Muscles and Ligaments. 1852 Burn Naval & Milit. Dict. (1863) s.v., Back swaying, effort des reins. |
▪ II. swaying, ppl. a.
(ˈsweɪɪŋ)
[f. sway v. + -ing2.]
I. † 1. Moving. Obs. rare.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 420 [The ark] Drof vpon þe depe dam..With-outen..any sweande sayl to seche after hauen. |
II. 2. Exercising power, influence, or control; influential, controlling. Obs. exc. as the second element of compounds, e.g. all-swaying.
| 1625 in Foster Eng. Factories India (1909) III. 106 [All matters of moment are to be determined by the three captains..; Weddell to have] a double or swaying voyce. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. vii. §319 A Member of the House of Commons, and of a swaying Interest there. 1684 O. Heywood Diaries, etc. (1885) IV. 111 A sweying man..to moderate the bench. 1711 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 171 A directing and swayeing head. |
3. Vacillating.
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 74/2 The Laws of Coursing..often alter according to some Mens swaying Fancies. |
4. In horses, ‘a hollow sinking down of the Back-bone’ (Bailey, 1726).
5. Moving to and fro.
| 1847 Thackeray Lords & Liv. iii, The mad swaying rush of the horses was reduced to a..steady gallop. 1875 M{supc}Laren Serm. Ser. ii. vii. 121 The swaying branches creak and groan. 1899 E. J. Chapman Drama of Two Lives, Snake-Witch 53 The flood-swept land and the swaying sea. |
Hence ˈswayingly adv., with a swaying motion.
| c 1854 in Circ. Sc. (c 1865) I. 294/2 On the tall poplar tree Perch'd swayingly. 1882 Proctor in Contemp. Rev. Mar. 476 Carried, not bodily, but still swayingly, against the direction of rotation. |