▪ I. swathing, vbl. n.
(ˈsweɪðɪŋ)
[f. swathe v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb swathe; wrapping or binding up; swaddling.
| 1375, etc. [implied in swathing-band, -clothes, -clouts]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 482/1 Swathynge of chyldyr. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 185 The Pergamites..had a great affectation..in streight swathing of their children. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. viii. 272 Swathing egregiously stops Bleeding. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 198 They use no swathing to their Babes. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. II. 489 The smallness of their feet is reckoned a principal part of their beauty, and no swathing is omitted..to give them that accomplishment. |
2. concr. That with which something is swathed; a wrapping; a bandage; a swaddling-band; also fig. (Most commonly in pl.)
| 1652 Sir C. Cotterell tr. Calprenède's Cassandra ii. 132 Putting his hands where he found his hurts paine him, he met with the plaisters and swathings which had bin applyed to them. a 1711 Ken Sion Poet. Wks. 1721 IV. 33 To..heal each Wound, Which there is with soft Swathing bound. 1822–7 Good Study Med. (1829) II. 630 Flannel swathing around the body. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. iii. 246 Were the earth unfurnished with this atmospheric swathing. 1884 J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 58 The women in a blue calico swathing. 1904 Budge 3rd & 4th Egypt. Rooms Brit. Mus. 117 The linen swathings of mummified bodies. |
▪ II. ˈswathing, ppl. a.
[f. swathe v. + -ing2.]
That swathes; enveloping, enwrapping.
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile 1943 The slow procession of the swathing seas. 1890 R. Bridges Shorter Poems v. xv. 15 No bud had burst its swathing hood. |