▪ I. swaddle, n.
(ˈswɒd(ə)l)
Also 6 swathel(l, swathle, swadel, 7 swadle.
[f. next. Cf. MDu. swadel and sweddle n.]
1. Swaddling-clothes: also fig. Now U.S.
| 1538 Elyot, Crepundia..the fyrst apparayle of chyldren, as swathels, wastcotes, and such lyke. Ibid., Fascia, a swathell or swathynge bande. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. Captaines 19 O sacred Place, which wert the Cradle Of th' only Man-God, and his happy Swadle. 1659 Torriano, A swadle, or swadling band, or clout, fascia, benda. 1881 Pop. Sci. Monthly XIX. 146 And under no circumstances any swaddles or baby night-gowns. 1897 Trans. Amer. Pediatric Soc. IX. 14 The one reformation of delivering the child from the incarceration of the swaddle. |
2. A bandage. Obs. or arch.
| a 1569 A. Kingsmill Conflict w. Satan (1578) 22 All full of plasters and bandes and swadels. 1611 Cotgr., Braye..a trusse, a swathell,..worne by such as are burst [= ruptured]. 1688 Holme Armoury iv. xi. (Roxb.) 444/1 Silk to wipe the Armes of the King after his annoynting and a swadle to bind it on the Armes. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 90 ¶7 They..ordered me to be..put to Bed in all my Swaddles. 1857 Heavysege Saul (1869) 267 Who will withdraw the swaddles from thine eyes. |
▪ II. swaddle, v.
(ˈswɒd(ə)l)
Forms: α. 5 swaþele, 6–7 swathel, swathle. β. 4 suadil, 6 swadel(l, -il, swaddell, 6–7 swadle, 7 swoddle, 6– swaddle.
[f. swath- (see swathe n.2) + -le, and related to swethle, sweddle, as swathe to swethe; for the phonology (-dl-:—-þl-) cf. fiddle. The earliest form in the group to which this verb belongs is swaðelbond, swaddleband.]
1. trans. To bind (an infant) in swaddling-clothes.
| α a 1425 [see swaddling-band]. 1577, 1587 [see swaddled]. |
| β 13.. [see swaddling-band]. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) 94 A lytyll bende to swadle a lytyll chylde beynge in his cradle. 1535 Coverdale Luke ii. 12 Ye shal fynde the babe swadled, and layed in a maunger. 1601 Holland Pliny xi. li. I. 353 King Crœsus had a sonne, who lying swaddled [ed. 1634 swoddled] in his cradle, spake by that time he was sixe months old. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Mortification i, Clothes are taken from a chest of sweets To swaddle infants. 1701 C. Wolley Jrnl. New York (1860) 27 The Children they Swaddle upon a Board. 1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. i. (1790) 13, I have known a child seized with convulsion-fits soon after the midwife had done swaddling it. 1873 Rich Dict. Rom. & Grk. Antiq. (1884) s.v. Fascia, Resembling..the manner in which an Italian peasant woman swaddles her offspring at the present day. 1879 Froude Short Studies (1883) IV. v. 355 A bambino swaddled round with wrappings. |
b. fig., now esp. with reference to the restriction of action of any kind.
| 1539 Bible (Great) Job xxxviii. 9 When I made the cloudes to be a couering for it, and swadled it wyth the darcke. 1613 W. Leigh Drumme Devot. 15 When it pleased him to swaddle us in his mercy. a 1631 Donne Anat. World i. 348 When Nature was most busy, the first week Swadling the new-born earth. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 28 The English is the language with which we are swadled and rock'd asleep. 1770 Cumberland West Indian iii. i, The sun, that..would not wink upon my nakedness, but swaddled me in the broadest, hottest glare of his meridian beams. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 137 In that state [sc. of aurelia] they are not entirely motionless, nor intirely swaddled up without form. 1820 Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 267 [His thoughts] have been cramped and twisted and swaddled into lifelessness and deformity. 1831 Lady Granville Lett. 16 Aug. (1894) II. 107 She looked infinitely handsomer than when in a satin frock, swaddled in jewels. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal III. iii. 56 You were born and swaddled in the purple of respectability. 1893 Sketch 1 Mar. 260/1 The usages and traditions which govern, not to say swaddle, the ordinary theatrical manager. |
c. Said of the swaddling-clothes. rare.
| a 1618 Sylvester Epigr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 341/2 Clouts swaddle him, whom no Clouds circle can. |
2. To wrap round with bandages; to envelop with wrappings; to swathe, bandage. Also with up.
| α 1597 Morley Canzonets to Foure Voyces x, Swathele me so that I may runne a gasping. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. iii. 133 The corses lie..shrouded in a number of folds of linnen, swathled with bands of the same. [Cf. 1631 Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 29.] |
| β 1522 More De quat. Noviss. Wks. 80/1 Twise a day to swaddle and plaster his legge. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 121 To swadle a bowe much about wyth bandes. 1581 A. Hall Iliad ix.161 To swaddle vp the festred wound. 1589 Nashe in Greene's Menaphon Ded. (Arb.) 12 The Scythians,..if they be at any time distressed with famin, take in their girdles shorter, and swaddle themselues streighter. a 1640 Day Parl. Bees v. (1881) 38 To have their temples girt and swadled up With night-caps. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 110 Cleft Graffs must be swadled with fine Earth, and Hay newly prepar'd. 1700 S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 141 As for our Ship, we were forced to Swaddle it with a four double Cable Rope. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 90 ¶7 They immediately began to swaddle me up in my Night-Gown with long Pieces of Linnen. 1774 Pennant Tour Scotl. in 1772 284 His ears had never been swaddled down, and they stood out. 1856 Kane Arctic Expl. I. xxix. 402 We swaddle our feet in old cloth, and guard our hands with fur mits. 1876 Morris Sigurd iv. 385 With the golden gear was he swaddled, and he held the red-gold rod. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 763 The patient may be kept thus swaddled for six, eight or ten hours. |
† 3. To beat soundly. colloq. Obs.
| c 1570 Misogonus ii. i. 62 Thou disardly dronkerd..ile swaddle your skinn. Ibid. iv. 32 Gett me dice or I shall yow blesse Yf I haue them not quickly Ile swaddle yow w{supt}{suph} a corde. a 1575 Wife Lapped in Morrelles Skin 846 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 214 Thy bones will I swaddle. 1607 Harington Nugæ Ant. (ed. Park 1804) II. 98 Hercules..swadeled him thriftily with a good cudgell. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Knt. Burn. Pestle ii. iv, I know the place where he my loins did swaddle. 1649 Davenant Love & Hon. i. i. 360 We swadled your duke home; he and the rest Of your bruis'd countrymen have woundrous need Of capons grease. 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. xxvii. 131 A huge Sandal, with a Pitch fork in his hand, who us'd to..rib-roast, swaddle, and swindge them. 1822 Scott Nigel xxviii, If I, with this piece of oak, did not make you such an example..that it should be a proverb to the end of time how John Christie swaddled his wife's fine leman! |