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Webster 1913 Edition

Swingle

Swin′gle

,
Verb.
I.
[Freq. of
swing
.]
1.
To dangle; to wave hanging.
[Obs.]
Johnson.
2.
To swing for pleasure.
[Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

Swin′gle

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Swingled
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Swingling
.]
[See
Swingel
.]
1.
To clean, as flax, by beating it with a swingle, so as to separate the coarse parts and the woody substance from it; to scutch.
2.
To beat off the tops of without pulling up the roots; – said of weeds.
[Prov. Eng.]
Forby.

Swin′gle

,
Noun.
A wooden instrument like a large knife, about two feet long, with one thin edge, used for beating and cleaning flax; a scutcher; – called also
swingling knife
,
swingling staff
, and
swingling wand
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Swingle

SWIN'GLE

,
Verb.
I.
[from swing.] To dangle; to wave hanging.
1.
To swing for pleasure. [Not in use.]

SWIN'GLE

,
Verb.
T.
To beat; to clean flax by beating it with a wooden instrument resembling a large knife, and called in New England a swingling knife. Flax is first broke and then swingled.

SWIN'GLE

,
Noun.
In wire-works, a wooden spoke fixed to the barrel that draws the wire; also, a crank.

Definition 2024

swingle

swingle

English

Verb

swingle ‎(third-person singular simple present swingles, present participle swingling, simple past and past participle swingled)

  1. to beat or flog, especially for extracting the fibres from flax stalks; to scutch
    • 1858, John Harland (editor), The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall, in the County of Lancaster,
      The first operation in dressing flax is to swingle or beat it, in order to detach it from the harle or skimps.
  2. To beat off the tops of (weeds) without pulling up the roots.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Forby to this entry?)

Noun

swingle ‎(plural swingles)

  1. An implement used to separate the fibres of flax by beating them; a scutch

Etymology 2

swing +‎ -le

Verb

swingle ‎(third-person singular simple present swingles, present participle swingling, simple past and past participle swingled)

  1. To dangle; to wave hanging.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)
  2. (obsolete, Britain, dialect) To swing for pleasure.

Anagrams

Etymology

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