▪ I. swingle, n.1
(ˈswɪŋg(ə)l)
Also 5 swengyl, swyngel, -il, -yl(l, swangul-, sungylle-, 5–6 swyngell, 6 swyngle, 7 swingow, 6–9 swingell, 9 local swindgel(l, swingel, -jel (ˈswɪndʒ(ə)l).
[a. MDu. swinghel swingle for flax, corresp. in form to OE. swingell, -el(l)e, swingle stroke or stripe with a rod, etc., whipping, scourging, chastisement, affliction, scourge, whip, also once, swingle or distaff (transl. colus), f. swing v.1 + -le 1; or partly a. (M)LG. swengel bell-clapper, pump-handle, swipe, MDu. swenghel swipe, Du. zwengel swingle, MHG. swengel (G. schwengel swipe, bell-clapper, swingletree, etc.):—*swaŋgwil-, f. swaŋgw- (see swing v.1). Some forms (swengyl, swangull, sungylle) show divergent stem-vowels the immediate source of which is not clear.]
1. A wooden instrument resembling a sword, used for beating and scraping flax or hemp so as to cleanse it of woody or coarse particles; also called swingle-hand, swingle-staff, or swingle-wand, swingling-bat, -knife, or -staff.
| c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 156 Le pesselin, the swingle. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 482/2 Swengyl, for flax or hempe, excudium. c 1462 Wright's Chaste Wife 216, I haue both hempe and lyne..And a swyngyll good and grete. Ibid. 387 Sche brought a swyngyll att þe last. 1847 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. ii. 446 The swingle or scutching tool. 1850 J. Warnes Flax v. Cotton 13 The first blow of the swingle is the commencement of wages. |
2. The striking part or swipple of a flail. local.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 482/2 Swengyl, of a fleyle or oþer lyke, feritorium. 1547 Salesbury Welsh Dict., Fustwial, a swyngell. 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) III. 2233/2 A blow with the swingell of a flayle. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. (1823) I. 90 While distant thresher's swingle drops With sharp and hollow-twanking raps. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia. 1889 F. Lucas Sk. Rural Life, The Tasker xvi, Then let our floors send up the sound Of the swinjel's measured stroke. |
b. A weapon resembling a flail; a kind of cudgel.
| 1818 W. Chafin Cranbourn Chase 35 They [sc. deer-stealers] came in the night..armed with deadly offensive weapons called swindgels, resembling flails to thresh corn. 1904 Daily News 7 Nov. 9 The keeper drew a ‘swingle’ round his legs, bringing him to the ground. 1905 J. C. Cox Royal Forests Eng. 84 Helmets and swindgel of the deer hunters of Cranbourn Chase. |
† 3. The clapper of a bell. Obs. rare—0.
| 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 567/39 Batillus, a belle clapere vel a swyngell. |
4. a. A spoke or lever for turning the barrel in wire-drawing or the roller of a plate-press. b. A crank.
| 1674 Ray Coll. Words, Wire working 133 Underneath is fastened to the barrel a spoke of wood, which they call a Swingle which is drawn back a good way by the calms or cogs in the Axis of the wheel, and draws back the barrel which falls to again by it's own weight. 1787 Marshall Rural Econ. Norfolk (1795) II. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Swingle, sb. a crank. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. |
▪ II. swingle, n.2 N. Amer. slang.
(ˈswɪŋg(ə)l)
[Blend of swinging ppl. a. 3 c, d and single n. 5 c.]
A ‘swinging’ single or unaccompanied person; spec. one in search of a sexual partner.
| 1967 Glamour June 82 Hilton Swingles Week. We created a week for people like you: Swinging Singles. 1973 Newsweek 16 July 53 The sheer number of singles, meshed with the media's seductive imagery (singles who swing are jauntily dubbed ‘swingles’), is gradually revising society's view of its unwed members. 1978 Chatelaine (Canada) Dec. 106/3 When she went out with her women friends for an evening, their husbands felt she was luring their wives into swingles bars and white slavery. |
▪ III. ˈswingle, v.1
Forms: see swingle n.1; also 5 swyngill, (squyngyl), 8 dial. sungle.
[a. MDu. swinghelen, f. swinghel swingle n.1]
1. trans. To beat and scrape (flax or hemp) with a swingle, in order to cleanse it of the coarser particles; to scutch. Also absol.
| c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 156 Estonger vostre leyn, to swingle the flax. 14.. Lat.-Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 581 Excudio, to squyngyl. c 1462 Wright's Chaste Wife 389 ‘Good syres’, sche seyd, ‘swyngylle on fast; For no þing that ye blynne’. Ibid. 401 Þe stuard þat was so stowde, Was fayne to swyngelle þe scales owte. c 1480 Henryson Mor. Fab., Swallow, etc. xxx, The carle pullit the lyne,..swyngillit it weill, and hekkillit in þe flet. 1590 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 61 Foure womene w{supc}{suph} did brake hempe and swynglye. 1615 [see swingletree 1]. 1711 S. Sewall Diary 15 Jan., It came by a man's blowing out his pipe, who was swingling Flax. 1776 Pennsylvania Even. Post 24 Sept. 478/2 Choice swingled Flax. 1794 Piper of Peebles 6 (E.D.D.) Lint was beaten wi'a mell An' ilk ane sungled to themsell. 1844 G. Dodd Textile Manuf. v. 150 Weeding, steeping, grassing, and swingling or cleaning the flax. 1883 Harper's Mag. Aug. 390/1, I found a group of bare-armed women under the trees swingling flax. |
2. To cut off the tops of (weeds) without uprooting. local. (Cf. swinge v.1 3.)
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia. |
▪ IV. ˈswingle, v.2
[frequent. of swing v.1]
† 1. trans. To swing or flourish about. Obs.
| c 1450 [see swingling vbl. n.2]. |
2. intr. To swing; to hang, be suspended. dial.
| 1755 Johnson, To Swingle, v.n. 1. To dangle; to wave hanging. 2. To swing in pleasure. 1830 Hogg Greek Pastoral 15 Where clouds and mountains seem'd to swingle, And Ossa with Olympus mingle. |