Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SWAMP, v.t.

1. To plunge, overact or sink and be lost in water.
2. To plunge into inextricable difficulties.

SWAMP'ED, pp.

Overwhelmed; plunged into difficulties.

SWAMP'ING, ppr.

Overwhelming; plunging into inextricable difficulties. – Quart. Rev.

SWAMP'-ORE, n.

In mineralogy, an ore of iron found in swamps and morasses; called also bog-ore, or indurate bog iron ore. Its color is a dark yellowish brown or gray; its fracture is earthy, and it contains so much phosphoric acid as to injure its tenacity. – Cyc.

SWAMP'Y, a.

Consisting of swamp; like a swamp; low wet and spungy; as, swampy land.

SWAN, n. [Sax. swan; D. zwaan; G. schwan; Dan. svane; Sw. svan. Qu. wan, white, with a prefix.]

A large aquatic fowl of the genus Anas, of two varieties, the wild and the tame. The plumage is of a pure white color, and its long arching neck gives it a noble appearance. – Cyc.

SWANG, n.

A piece of low land or green sward, liable to be covered with water. [Local in England.]

SWANS'-DOWN, n.

A fine soft thick woolen cloth.

SWAN'SKIN, n. [swan and skin.]

A species of flannel a soft texture, thick and warm.

SWAP, adv. [Qu. sweep.]

Hastily; at a snatch. [A low word and local.]

SWAP, v.t.

To exchange; to barter; to swap. [See Swop.] [This word is not elegant, but common in colloquial language in America.]

SWAPE, n. [Qu. sweep.]

A pole supported by a fulcrum which it turns, used for raising water from a well, churning, &c. [This Bailey spells swipe, and in N. England it is pronounced sweep, as in well-sweep.]

SWAP'PED, pp.

Exchanged; bartered.

SWAP'PING, ppr.

Exchanging.

SWARD, n. [Sax. sweard; Dan. svær; D. zwoord; G. schwarte, rind, skin; W. gweryd, an excretion, sward, moss.]

1. The skin of bacon. [Local.]
2. The grassy surface of land; turf; that part of the which is filled with the roots of grass, forming a kind mat. When covered with green grass, it is called green sward.

SWARD, v.t.

To produce sward; to cover with sward. – Mortimer.

SWARD'-CUT-TER, n.

An instrument for cutting sward across the ridges.

SWARD'ED, a.

Covered with sward. – Drake.

SWARD'Y, a.

Covered with award or grass; as, swardy land.

SWARE, or SCHWARE, n.

A copper coin and money of account in Bremen, value one fifth of a groat, and 72 groats make a thaler, [dollar.]

SWARE, v. [old pret. of Swear. We now use swore.]

SWARM, n. [Sax. swearm; G. schwarm; D. zwerm; Dan. sverm; Sw. svärm. This seems to be formed on the root of warm. The Sp. hervir, to boil, to swarm, is the L. ferveo, and boiling is very expressive of the motions of a swarm of bees. See the Verb.]

1. In a general sense, a large number or body of small animals or insects, particularly when in motion; but appropriately, a great number of honey bees which emigrate from a hive at once, and seek new lodgings under the direction of a queen; or a like body of bees united and settled permanently in a hive. The bees that leave a hive in spring are the young bees produced in the year preceding. – Exod. viii. Judges xiv.
2. A swarm or multitude; particularly, a multitude of people in motion. Swarms of northern nations overran the South of Europe in the fifth century. Note. The application of this word to inanimate things, as swarms of advantages, by Shakspeare, and swarms of themes, by Young, is not legitimate, for the essence of the word is motion.

SWARM, v.i. [Sax. swearmian; D. zwermen; G. schwärmen; Dan. svermer; Sw. svärma, to swarm, to rove, to wander, to swerve. Note. This, by the common people in New England, is pronounced squirm or squurm, and it is evidently formed on worm, indicating that worm and warm, on which swarm and squirm are formed, are radically the same word. The primary sense is to bend, wind, twist, as a worm or a swarm of bees. It may be formed on the root of veer, vary.]

1. To collect and depart from a hive by flight in a body, as bees. Bees swarm in warm, clear days in summer.
2. To appear or collect in a crowd; to run; to throng together; to congregate in a multitude. In crowds around the swarming people join. – Dryden.
3. To be crowded; to be thronged with a multitude of animals in motion. The forests in America often swarm with wild pigeons. The northern seas in spring swarm with herrings. Every place swarms with soldiers. – Spenser. [Such phrases as “life swarms with ills,” “those days swarmed with fables,” are not legitimate or wholly obsolete. – Brown. Young.]
4. To breed multitudes. – Milton.
5. To climb, as a tree, by embracing it with the arms and legs, and scrambling. At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it. – Coxe's Russ.

SWARM, v.t.

To crowd or throng. [Not in use.]

SWARM'ED, pp. [of Swarm.]