▪ I. swill, n.1 north. and E. Angl.
(swɪl)
Also 4 sqwill(e, 4–7 swille.
[Origin unknown.]
1. A large shallow basket, made roughly with strips of oak, unpeeled willows, or the like.
| 1395 Cartular. Abb. de Whiteby (Surtees) II. 604 Pro ij cannis et j sqwill, subulco, vj. d. 1569 Richmond Wills (Surtees) 218, vj sand pokes with iij great swilles. 1650 in Trans. Cumb. & Westm. Antiq. Soc. (N.S.) IX. 291 The Miller..shall not lette any moulter stay in swilles..above half a peck. 1701 in W. O. Blunt Ch. Chester-le-Street (1884) 103 Paid for a swill for y⊇ cuishon 00 00 03. 1811 Willan in Archaeologia XVII. 160 (W. Riding Words) Swill, a wicker basket, used by washer-women. 1829 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Swill, a round basket of wicker work; generally carried on the head. 1894 H. D. Rawnsley Lit. Assoc. Engl. Lakes I. 123 Here he worked at his baskets and swills for five and a half years. |
b. spec. A basket in which fish,
esp. herrings, are landed or carried to market; hence as a measure, containing from 500 to 660 herrings.
† Formerly also for oysters.
| 1352 Excheq. Acc. Q.R. Bundle 20. No. 27 (P.R.O.) De id. ob. solutis pro uno sqwille empto. 1398 York Memo. Bk. (Surtees) I. 164 Ceaux qe vendount oistres desormes facent vendre par swilles. 1657 in Sir C. Sharp Chron. Mirab. (1841) 33 (Wolsingham) George Greeinewell, the swill maker. 1853 Househ. Words VI. 425/2 At Yarmouth..the fish are landed in certain convenient and quaintly-shaped baskets, called ‘swills’. 1856 Illustr. Lond. News 12 Apr. 374/1 (Yarmouth) A number of baskets called ‘swells’, somewhat [similar] in shape to a baker's basket, but considerably longer, with a broad flat handle in the centre, at top. 1894 R. Leighton Wreck Golden Fleece 14 Many's the time I've risked my life for a swill o' mackerel or a line of haddocks. |
† 2. A washing-tub.
Obs.| 1624 in Archaeologia XLVIII. 147 (Yorks.) In the Wash⁓house. Tubbs 3. Swills 3. Soaes 3. 2 cloth baskettes. 1674 Ray N.C. Words, A Swill, a keeler to wash in, standing on three feet. |
▪ II. swill, n.2 (
swɪl)
Also 6
swyl,
swyll, 6–7
swil.
[f. swill v.] 1. a. Liquid, or partly liquid, food, chiefly kitchen refuse, given to swine; hog-wash, pig-wash.
| a 1570 Black-Letter Ball. & Broadsides (1867) 131, I serue your swyne with draffe and swyl. 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) I. 138/1 Swyl and draffe, wont to be giuen to their hogs. 1626 Breton Fantastickes Wks. (Grosart) II. 13/2 The Hogges cry till they haue their swill. 1666 J. Alleine Let. xxvi. in Life (1672) 93 Every Swine will have his swill. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 249 'Tis good to give them [sc. pigs] such swill as you have every Morning and Evening to make them come home to their Coats. 1817–18 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 174 The milk and fat pot-liquor and meal are, when put together, called, in Long Island, swill. 1864 H. Jones Holiday Papers 45 Many a time have I watched the yardman baling out swill for the pigs with a ladle. 1913 G. G. Coulton in Rep. 7th Ann. Meeting Hist. Assoc. 13 The pig bred for pork, to which everything is given indiscriminately and simultaneously, in the form of swill or slop. |
b. fig.| 1553 M. Wood tr. Gardiner's True Obed. To Rdr. B iv, He..geueth vs leaue, according to our demerites, to be fed with the swil and draffe, of masing masses. 1554–5 Hooper in Foxe A. & M. (1563) 1061/1, I am swill and sincke of sin. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage vii. ii. 555 And yet our country⁓man Harding, leauing the cleare waters of truth, hath swallowed the same swill, as the Iewell of our Church hath taught him. a 1653 G. Daniel Idyll. v. 107 Throw y{supt} Course Branne, with the Swill of Humors, a Mash made For Sickly Tirants. 1901 W. Churchill Crisis i. x, You will not think of us as foreign swill, but as patriots. |
c. transf. A liquid or partly liquid mess, a slop.
| 1665 Nedham Med. Medicinæ 47 It contemns all those large Pectoral Swils, long Syrups, and Electuaries. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 499 If the state of the ingesta is usually rather that of a sour fermented ‘swill’. 1903 Cutcliffe Hyne M{supc}Todd iv. 87 The place was full of steam, too, from the swill slopping against the boiler fires. |
2. a. Copious or heavy drinking; liquor,
esp. when drunk to excess;
† a draught or swig (of liquor).
| 1602 Breton Mother's Blessing xlv, Weare not a feather in a showre of raine, Nor swagger with a Swiser for his swill. 1641 H. L'Estrange God's Sabbath 132 To spend the hole day in swinish swill, lascivious wantonnesse,..and in the true service of Satan. 1654 R. Codrington tr. Iustine xxiv. 339 The Gauls falling to their swill of Wine as to their prey. 1726–31 Waldron Descr. Isle of Man (1865) 56 As soon as he had recruited himself with a hearty swill of brandy. 1730–46 Thomson Autumn 538 As they swim in mutual swill. 1846 Ld. Stanley in Croker Papers (1884) III. 87 A pail of ale, with a bottle of gin in it, from which every man takes a swill. 1864 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xv. i. IV. 7 Eminent swill of drinking, with the loud coarse talk supposable, on the part of Mentzel and consorts did go on. |
b. six o'clock swill, the customary bout of hasty drinking in public houses at the end of the working day, occasioned by the former six-o'clock-closing regulations.
Austral. and
N.Z. colloq.| [1951 A. W. Upfield New Shoe 93 It wanted ten minutes to the fatal hour of six, and the enforced National Swill was in full flood.] 1955 A. Ross Australia 55 81 This evening ritual, known amongst Australians as the ‘six o'clock swill’. 1961 F. Hardy Hard Way 73 The [prison] yard was filling steadily, mostly with drunks, and a few victims of the six o'clock swill. 1970 D. Horne Next Australia 160 The ‘six o'clock swill’ before the lavatory-tiled bars closed was one of the continuing tests of masculinity. |
3. Comb., as
swill-barrel,
swill-bucket,
swill-cistern,
swill-house,
swill-pail;
swill-engrossing adj.;
† swill-milk U.S., inferior milk produced by cows fed entirely on swill (
obs.).
(See also
swill v. 5; also
swill-tub.)
| 1869 Mrs. Stowe Oldtown Folks xxxvi. 469 The wasteful excesses she had seen in the minister's *swill-barrel. |
| 1932 Kipling Limits & Renewals 311 Enoch sat helpless on a *swill-bucket. 1975 Country Life 13 Mar. 666/1 Those happy-go-lucky swill-bucket days. |
| 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §866 *Swill-cisterns and tanks for holding liquid food. |
| 1631 Fuller David's Heinous Sin (1867) 212 *Swill-engrossing swine, with greedy throats. |
| 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §866 Gloss., *Swill house, place for preparing pigs' food. |
| 1853 Hunt's Merch. Mag. XXVIII. 684 The whole business [is] in the hands of the *swill milk manufacturers. 1894 P. L. Ford Hon. Peter Stirling 72 The press began, too, a crusade against the swill-milk dealers. |
| 1741 Boston News-Let. 12 Feb. 2/1 Taken up by John Morey, Esq...a *swill-Pale, otherwise called a Hog-Pale. 1889 Fernald in Voice (N.Y.) 3 Oct., Buy green apples at the highest market price, and throw them into the swill-pail. |
▪ III. swill, v. (
swɪl)
Forms: 1
swillan (
suillan),
swilian (
swylian), 3–4
swyle, 4
swile, 6
swyll,
swil,
Sc. sweill, 7
swille, 6–
swill.
[OE. swillan, swilian, of which no certain cognates are known.] 1. trans. To wash or rinse
out (a vessel or cavity), or, now usually, to cause water to flow freely upon (a surface, floor, etc.) in order to cleanse it;
† formerly also in wider use, to wash, bathe, drench, soak.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) G 3 Gargarizet, gagul suille. c 1000 Lambeth Ps. vi. 7 [6] Lauabo..lectum meum lacrimis meis, ic ðwea vel ic swiliᵹe..min bed mid minum tearum. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 24 Seoh þurh linenne clað & swile mið þæt geagl. a 1300 Body & Soul in Böddeker Altengl. Dichtungen (1878) 239 Þe þridde day shal flowe a flod þat al þis world shal hyle; boþe heye & lowe, þe flume shal hit swyle. c 1300 Havelok 919 Ful wel kan ich dishes swilen. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 5826 He meked hym self ouer skyle, Pottes and dysshes for to swele [v.r. swyle]. 1530 Palsgr. 745/2, I swyll, I rynce or clense any maner vessell, je raince. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 24 With wyne theire venison was swyld. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. i. 14 A galled Rocke..Swill'd with the wild and wastfull Ocean. 1619 Drayton Bar. Wars ii. xiv, The Siluer Trent..Which, with the store of liberall Brookes supplyde, Th' insatiate Meads continually doth swill. 1638 Rider Horace, Odes iii. 12 He in Tiber's streams hath swill'd His oyly shoulders. 1647 C. Harvey Schola Cordis (1778) 119 Swelter'd and swill'd in sweat. 1801 tr. Gabrielli's Myst. Husb. III. 77 There, slip these on,..and I will swill out your other stockings in the morning. 1802 Beddoes Hygeia viii. 19 The patient had carefully swilled out her stomach with water. 1842 T. Martin in Fraser's Mag. Dec. 652/2 Ducking and diving into the basin-stand, and swilling his face and neck with oceans of water. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 69 The dairy, which has to be constantly ‘swilled’ out and mopped clean. |
| absol. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. iii. vi, Kezia, the good-hearted, bad-tempered housemaid,..had begun to scrub and swill. |
b. To stir (something) about in a vessel of liquid; to shake or stir (liquid) in a vessel by moving the vessel about.
| 1580 Frampton Joyful News, Two Med. agst. Venome 138 It is good to have a peece of a right Unicornes horne in a smal cheyne of golde, that it may bee swilled continually in the water that shall bee dronke. 1600 Surflet Country Farm i. xii. 59 They swill the vrine round about the basen. c 1650 K. Arthur & K. Cornwall 278 in Hales & Furniv. Percy Folio I. 73 Then Sir Tristeram tooke powder forth of that box, & blent it with warme sweet milke; & there put it vnto that horne, & swilled it about in that ilke. |
c. To carry by a current of water, to wash down, against something, etc. Also, to pour or carry (liquid) freely down.
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. Furies 307 Bloud, tears, bowrs, towrs; she spils, swils, burns, and razes. 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. iii. xx, The worst..distilling To divers pipes, the pale cold humour swilling, Runs down to th' Urine-lake. 1850 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XI. i. 155 The first rains..swill the soil into the rock beneath. 1902 Daily Chron. 15 Sept. 6/4 He clutched at everything he could feel. He was ‘swilled’ against a post. |
2. intr. To move or dash about, as liquid shaken in a vessel; to flow freely or forcibly; to flow or spread over a surface.
| 1642 H. More Song of Soul, Notes Psychath. Wks. (Grosart) 152/1 The acceleration or retardation of the motion of the Earth will make the sea fluctuate or swill, like water in a shaken vessel. 1659 ― Immort. Soul iii. xiii. §6. 465 The Spirit of Nature in some regards leaves the motion of Matter to the pure laws of Mechanicks, but within other bounds checks it, whence it is that the Water does not swill out of the Moon. 1884 R. Paton Scott. Church vii. 62 Than if their heads were channels for any rubbish to swill through that happened to be in the way. 1895 G. Parker Adventurer of North 183 The river went swishing, swilling past. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas, Rhyme of 3 Sealers 119 O rainbow-gay the red pools lay that swilled and spilled and spread. |
3. To drink freely, greedily, or to excess, like hogs devouring ‘swill’ or ‘wash’.
a. trans. (
Occas. with
down, formerly also
in.)
| 1561 J. Awdelay Frat. Vacab. (1869) 13 A licoryce knaue that will swill his Maisters drink. 1563 Homilies ii. Agst. Gluttony Eee ij b, He left not his banqueting, but in one night swilled in so much wyne, that he fell into a feuer. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 91 Their women swill Wine and Beere daily, and in great excesse. 1674 tr. Martiniere's Voy. North. Countries 32 They drank of our beer.., but not with the gust and delight they swill down their own. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 474 ¶6, I would be brisk in swilling Bumpers. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. 391 Swilling down great Quantities of cold watery Liquors. 1808 Scott Marm. i. xxii, Let Friar John..Roast hissing crabs, or flagons swill. 1821 ― Kenilw. ii, These empty stoups,..which my nephew and his drunken comrades have swilled off. 1850 Dickens Dav. Copp. xxvi, I sat swilling tea. 1853 Hawthorne Tanglewood T., Circe's Palace (1879) 138 How they swilled down the liquor. |
| transf. and fig. 1566 J. Studley tr. Seneca's Agamemnon 2273 The sacred tombes and alter stones our blood haue dronke and swyld. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. i. 438 Those that the Sea hath swill'd. 1690 C. Nesse Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test. I. 97 That bitter cup which..they should have been swilling and swallowing down for ever. 1744 Armstrong Preserv. Health iv. 168 In the tempting bowl Of poison'd nectar sweet oblivion swill. 1818 Shelley Lines Euganean Hills 223 That the brutal Celt may swill Drunken sleep with savage will. |
b. intr. (
esp. to tipple, booze).
| c 1530 [see swilling vbl. n. 2]. a 1583 Montgomerie Flyting 494 (Tullibard. MS.) Vnto þe cocatrice in ane creill they send it [sc. the crocodile]; quhair, sevin ȝeiris, it sowkit, sweillit, singit and sarie. c 1590 Marlowe Faustus xiii, He would not banquet, and carowse, and swill Amongst the Students. a 1625 Fletcher Bloody Brother ii. ii, Then let us swill boyes for our health, Who drinks well, loves the commonwealth. 1678 R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 252 When he had Swill'd..to a Beastly Excess he was carry'd away..to bed. 1775 Sheridan Duenna iii. v, Ye eat, and swill, and sleep, and gourmandise. 1780 Cowper Progr. Err. 266 To swill and swallow at a trough. 1845 Dickens Chimes ii. 60 Not that you should swill, and guzzle, and associate your enjoyments, brutally, with food. 1887 Jefferies Amaryllis vii, They went along..en route to swill and smoke and puff and guffaw somewhere else. |
4. trans. To cause to drink freely; to supply with abundance or excess of liquor; to fill with drink;
refl. to drink one's fill. Const.
with,
† in.
| 1548 Elyot, Appotus, well wette with drynke, welle wasshed or swilled with drynke, almost drunke. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 104 Wee must not swill and ingurgitate our stomacks so ful. 1648 Crashaw Delights Muses, Muses Duel 76 Sweet-lipp'd Angell-Imps, that swill their throats In creame of Morning Helicon. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 154 ¶13 Several Souls, who..flock about the Banks of the River Lethe, and swill themselves with the Waters of Oblivion. 1728 Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. i. ii, I wonder..you will encourage that lad to swill his guts thus with such beastly lubberly liquor. 1772 Nugent tr. Grosley's Tour Lond. I. 81 Tied in a file to posts at the extremity of the grass-plat, they [sc. cows] swill passengers with their milk, which.. is served..in little mugs. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt xi, Till they can show there's something they love better than swilling themselves with ale. |
b. To supply or feed (a hog) with swill.
| a 1722 Lisle Husb. (1757) 411 Hogs should be well swilled with wash before they are put up for fatting. |
5. Comb. a. with
adv., as
† swill-down a., that swills down liquor, addicted to excessive drinking.
b. with
n. in objective relation, as
† swill-belly, a great drinker; so
swill-bellied a.;
swill-bowl,
swill-flagon,
swill-pot, one who swills a bowl (flagon, pot), an excessive drinker, a toper.
| 1699 R. L'Estrange Erasm. Colloq. (1725) 124 Their brawny, *swill-bellied monks. |
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Swill-belly, a great Drinker. |
| a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xxxi. 256 Such a *Swill-down Bouser. |
| 1829 Scott Anne of G. xxiii, Out, thou eternal *swill-flagon! |
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xxxiii, That unworthy *Swill⁓pot Grangousier. |
Hence
swilled (
swɪld)
ppl. a., filled with liquor, inebriated, drunken.
| 1634 Milton Comus 178, I should be loath To meet the rudenesse, and swill'd insolence Of such late Wassailers. |
▪ IV. swill (also 6
swyll),
dial. var. sweal v.
| 1543 St. Papers Hen. VIII, III. 444 To storke [? scorke] or swyll the eares of wheate, and eate the same. 1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk II. 88 The smell and the crackling noise..occasioned by ‘swilling’, or scorching it [sc. a pig]. |