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▪ I. swale, n.1 dial.|sweɪl| Forms: 4 swayl, 6 swaill, swaile, swaule, swawle, 6–7 swall(e, 8–9 swale, 9 swaul. [Of obscure origin. If the orig. meaning was a pliant ‘swaying’ piece of wood, the two types swail, swall, may represent an OE. *swæᵹ(e)l, *swaᵹol, f. swaᵹ-, cogn. with Scand. svag- in Norw. svaga (see swag v.); cf. ME. hail, haul (OE. hæᵹel, haᵹol), hail n.1] Timber in laths, boards, or planks; planking; also, a lath, plank. For specialized local uses see quots. 1841 and 1903.
1325Rolls of Parlt. I. 434/2 Qu'ele peusse pur swayl & autres busoignes necessaries de la meson, abatre en la dit boys cent rores. 1505–6Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 103 Pro sarracione le swailles pro eisdem [domibus porcorum]. 1531–2Durham Househ. Bk. (Surtees) 80 Pro sarracione ½ rod in swalles 10 d. Ibid. 130, 1 lytyll swall and 12 bords. 1557Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 80 For swaile for a saunce belle..ij d. 1574Richmond Wills (Surtees) 249 Foure swawles and foure trists, vs. 1582Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1860) 47, iij swalles for a horse baye. 1597Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 740 For sawinge Sarkyn boordes and Swalles for the churche and the new bridge. 1600Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 222 A swalle of timber lyinge at Beckwithe. 1640Gateshead Church Bks. in Northumbld. Gloss. s.v. Swale, For 12 swalls for formes for the church. 1648in Archaeologia æliana (1892) XV. 252 For 20 Swalls to be scaffolds. 1799Naval Chron. I. 176 Stepping down the side of the Yarmouth hulk at Plymouth, he fell against the swale of the vessel. 1841Hartshorne Salopia Ant. Gloss. 582 Swale, a piece of wood going from an upright shaft in an oatmeal mill to one of the wheels. 1903Eng. Dial. Dict., Swauls, the outside bars in the frame of the bottom of a cart. w. Yks. ▪ II. swale, n.2 dial., chiefly E. Angl.|sweɪl| Also 7 swill, 9 swail. [prob. of Scandinavian origin, and related to ON. svalar f. pl. (MSw. svali, Sw. svale, Norw. sval) balcony or gallery along the side of a house, ON. svalr cool (see swale a.), ON. (MSw., Sw., Norw.) svala to cool.] Shade; a shady place. Also, the cool, the cold.
c1440Promp. Parv. 481/2 Swale (P. or shadowe), umbra, umbraculum, estiva. 1567Golding Ovid's Met. v. (1593) 116 Downe she sate among the trees which gaue a plesant swale. 1571― Calvin on Ps. xxiii. 4 David alludeth to y⊇ dark swales or the dens of wyld beastes. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric., Dict. Rust., Swill, used in the Northern parts for shade, or shadow. c1700Kennett MS. Lansd. 1033, Swale, cold or dank air; as, he lies in the swale, i.e. in the open cold air. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 139 Granny there was on the bench, Coolly sitting in the swail. 1857Borrow Romany Rye xxv, Turn your horse out to grass..in the swale of the morn and the evening. ▪ III. swale, n.3 local.|sweɪl| Also 6 Sc. swaill, swayll, 9 swail, Sc. swyle. [Origin unknown. Prob. conveyed to America from the eastern counties, where it is still in use.] A hollow, low place; esp. U.S., a moist or marshy depression in a tract of land, esp. in the midst of rolling prairie. Also (U.S.) a hollow between adjacent sand-ridges.
1584(Dec. 23) Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. (1888) 239/2 Keipand the stripe quhill it enter in Beildeis swaill, and keipand and ascendand upwith the said swaill quhill it cum to the littill stane calsay. 1615Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1848) II. 324 Hauldand vp the said burne to the roche swaill of Kynmvndie. Ibid., Quhair thair is ane great mother swayll on the south syde of the said Blackburne. Ibid. 326 Thairfra doun the said northsyd of the great swayll. 1667Dedham Rec. IV. 135 (Thornton) He may cutt in a place called the Swale, adjoyning to the Ceader Swampe. 1805T. Bigelow Jrnl. Tour Niagra Falls (1876) 37 (Thornton) A swale or valley affords..copious springs of water. 1809Kendall Trav. III. lxxvii. 193 The swales, or rich hollows, lying behind the uplands, by which latter they are separated from the meadows. 1827J. F. Cooper Prairie v, Fire low, boys—level into the swales, for the red skins are settling to the very earth! 1830Galt Lawrie T. iii. ii. (1849) 86 Stumps and cradle heaps, mud-holes and miry swails, succeeded one another. 1866Gregor Banffsh. Gloss., Swyle, a bog. 1874Trippe in Coues Birds N.W. 223 An open park-like tract of rolling, grassy prairie, interspersed with groves of pines, low hills, and wet, marshy swales. 1894Dialect Notes I. 334 Swale, low land between sand ridges on the coast beaches [of New Jersey]. 1945,1976[see point bar (b) s.v. point n.1 D. 14]. attrib.1830Galt Lawrie T. viii. v. (1849) 371 These swale-runnels are often deceptive. 1905Blackw. Mag. Dec. 771/1 That course led him through the swale bottoms. 1911Canadian Newspaper, Their crop is swale hay; in other words swamp grass. ▪ IV. swale, n.4 south. dial. local.|sweɪl| [Origin uncertain: cf. sweal, swale n., and swill n.1 10 in Eng. Dial. Dict.] A small broom or brush without a stick for a handle.
1949K. S. Woods Rural Crafts of England iii. vii. 123 Some besoms are made without sticks. These are known as swales, an interesting word meaning ‘a small bright fire enough to boil a kettle’. Swales are used to brush the flakes from steel-plate. 1968J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 100 Like the besom, it has a head of birch..but is without a handle and is called a swale. ▪ V. swale, a. north. dial. [a. ON. svalr (MSw., Sw., Norw. sval) cool: cf. swale n.2] Cool, chill.
1674Ray N.C. Words 47 Swale, windy, cold, bleak. ▪ VI. swale, v.1 see sweal v. ▪ VII. swale, v.2|sweɪl| [app. of dial. origin (see swail in Eng. Dial. Dict.); prob. frequent. f. sway v. + -le, but parallels are wanting. Cf. Shropshire dial. swayl-pole = sway-pole.] intr. To move or sway up and down or from side to side. Hence ˈswaling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈswalingly adv., with a swaying motion.
1820Blackw. Mag. VII. 676 Here's a jerked feather that swales in a bonnet. 1822Ibid. XII. 781 With his eternal sidling and sliding about,..and swaling with his coat-tails. Ibid. 782 Treading the street with his corn-troubled toes,..swalingly goes the kind Cockney King. 1824Ibid. XV. 86 He drops a wing..with a swaling and graceful amorousness. 1827Praed Red Fisherm. 221 As the swaling wherry settles down. 1863Sala Captain Dangerous I. iv. 123 The great plumed hat..flapped and swaled over my eyes. 1895A. Dobson Poems, Sundial xi, A soldier gallant.., Swinging a beaver with a swaling plume. ▪ VIII. swale obs. pa. tense of swell v. |