▪ I. ˈswealing, ˈswaling, vbl. n.
[f. sweal v. + -ing1.]
Burning; singeing: for special uses see quots. and sweal v.
| c 1410 Lanterne of Liȝt iii. 6 Euery proud soule..schal be in to sweyling [orig. erit in combustionem]. 1549 Compl. Scot. ii. 24, I sal visee ȝou vitht dreddour, vitht fyir, ande vitht suellieg [sic]. 1694 J. Houghton Collect. Improv. Husb. No. 95 ¶2 Swealing of Sheep in Ireland. 1759 R. Forster in J. Nichols Collect. Hist. Berks (1783) 56 The singeing of a pig they call sweeling. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 1201 When cured as bacon, it is the practice in Kent to singe off the hairs, by making a straw fire round the hog, an operation which is termed swaling. 1892 Pall Mall G. 16 Apr. 7/2 The wanton practice of ‘swaling’ [sc. ‘firing the heather’ on Dartmoor]. 1899 J. M. Falkner Moonfleet vii, There is a swealing of the parchment under the hot wax. 1902 E. Phillpotts River 251 These spring fires, or ‘swaleings’, had been deliberately lighted that furze and heather might perish, and the grasses, thus relieved, prosper for flocks and herds. |
▪ II. ˈswealing, ˈswaling, ppl. a.
[f. sweal v. + -ing2.]
Burning, blazing; (of a candle) guttering.
| a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. xliii. (1883) 213 He ða sende of heofonum beornend ren and swælende leᵹ. c 1420 Prymer (1895) 10 (Benedicite) Fier & swellynge heete [ignis et æstus]. 1807 J. Stagg Poems 24 Swift the sweelin hether flies. 1812 Colman Br. Grins, Lady of Wreck ii. xxviii, A swaling candle. |