▪ I. † swingling, vbl. n.1 Obs.
(ˈswɪŋglɪŋ)
In 1 swinglung, (swinclung), 5 swyngyllyng.
[Cf. Icel. svingla to rove, Da. svingla to reel, stagger, svingling reeling, giddiness. The form in the northern Alph. Tales may be from Scandinavian.]
Giddiness, dizziness, vertigo.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülucker 112/18 Scotomia, swinglung. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 344 Ðam mannum þe swinclunge [v.r. swinglunge] þrowiað. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 19 And þer fell a swyngyllyng in his hede þat he wex fonde with. |
▪ II. † swingling, vbl. n.2
See swingle v.2 1.
| c 1450 in Aungier Syon (1840) 300 Goynge..withe oute swynglynge of armes or of handes. |
▪ III. swingling, vbl. n.3
(ˈswɪŋglɪŋ)
[f. swingle v.1 + -ing1.]
The process of dressing flax or hemp with a swingle; scutching.
| c 1462, etc. [see b]. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. iii. 106/2 Swingowing, is the beating off the brused inward Stalk of the Hemp or Flax, from the outward pill. 1765 Museum Rust. IV. cvi. 456 When the flax grows crooked, it is more liable to be hurt in the rippling and swingling. 1847 Nicholls in Jrnl. Roy. Agric. Soc. VIII. ii. 457 Scutching or Swingling..is the act of clearing the fibre [of flax] from the woody part of the stalk after it has been bruised and loosened by the break. |
b. attrib., as swingling machine, swingling operation; swingling-bat, -knife, -staff = swingle n.1 1; swingling-board, -post, -stock = swingle-stock, swing-stock (see swing- 2); swingling-hand = swingle-hand; swingling-tow, the coarse part of flax, separated by swingling.
| c 1462 Wright's Chaste Wife 386 The wyfe þrew hym a swyngelyng stocke. 1552 Huloet, Swynglyngbatte, or staffe to beate flaxe, scutula. 1583 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1860) 78 Two swinglinge stockes withe theire swynglinges. 1689 [see swingle-hand]. 1819 Mass. Spy 3 Nov. 2/2 My wife threw a swingling board at the man who had me by the hand. 1825 Jamieson, Swingling-hand, a wooden lath or sword for dressing flax. 1827 Carlyle Germ. Rom. I. 39 Spinning-wheel and reel, swingling-stake [sic] and hatchel. 1828–32 Webster, Swingling-tow, the coarse part of flax, separated from the finer by swingling and hatcheling. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 493 The scutching or swingling machine. 1851 A. Marshall in Schroeder Ann. Yorks. I. 419 Making less dust in the swingling operation. 1902 A. Thomson Lauder & Lauderd. xxii. 259 A swingling post, sloping slightly, was firmly fixed in the floor of the barn. |