Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SWIFT, n.

1. The current of a stream. [Little used.] – Walton.
2. In domestic affairs, a reel or turning instrument for winding yarn. [This is a sense directly from the Saxon verb.]
3. A bird, a species of swallow, so called from the rapidity of its flight. – Derham.
4. The common newt or eft, a species of lizard. – Cyc.

SWIFT'ER, a. [comp. of Swift.]

More swift.

SWIFT'ER, n.

In a ship, a rope used to confine the bars of the capstan in their sockets, while men are turning it; also, a rope used to encircle a boat longitudinally, to strengthen and defend her sides from the impulse of other boats. Swifters also are two shrouds fixed on the starboard and larboard sides of the lower masts, above all the other shrouds, to give the masts additional security.

SWIFT'ER, v.t.

To stretch, as shrouds by tackles.

SWIFT'EST, a. [sup. of Swift.]

Most swift.

SWIFT'FOOT, a.

Nimble.

SWIFT'LY, adv.

Fleetly; rapidly; with celerity; with quick motion or velocity. Pleas'd with the passage, we slide swiftly on. – Dryden.

SWIFT'NESS, n.

Speed; rapid motion; quickness; celerity; velocity; rapidity. Swiftness is a word of general import, applicable to every kind of motion, and to every thing that moves; as, the swiftness of a bird; the swiftness of a stream; swiftness of descent in a falling body; swiftness of thought, &c.

SWIG, n.

1. A large draught. [Vulgar.]
2. In seamen's language, a pulley with ropes which are not parallel.

SWIG, v.t.¹ [or v. i. Ice. swiga. Qu. suck.]

To drink by large draughts; to suck greedily.

SWIG, v.t.² [Sax. swigan, to stupefy.]

To castrate, as a ram, by binding the testicles tight with a string, so that they mortify and slough off. [Local.] – Cyc.

SWILL, n.

1. Large draughts of liquor; or drink taken in excessive quantities.
2. The wash or mixture of liquid substances, given to swine; rolled in some places swilling.

SWILL, v.t. [Sax. swelgan, swylgan, to swallow.]

1. To drink grossly or greedily; as, to swill down great quantities of liquors. – Arbuthnot.
2. To wash; to drench. – Shak.
3. To inebriate; to swell with fullness. I should be loth / To meet the rudeness and swill'd insolence / Of such late wassailers. – Milton.

SWILL'ED, pp.

Swallowed grossly in large quantities.

SWILL'ER, n.

One who drinks voraciously.

SWILL'ING, ppr.

Swallowing excessive quantities of liquors.

SWILL'INGS, n.

Swill.

SWIM, n.

The bladder of fishes, by which they are said to be supported in water. – Grew.

SWIM, v.i. [pret. swam; pp. swum. Sax. swimman; D. zwemmen, to swim; zwymen, to swoon; G. schwemmen, schwimmen; Dan. svimler, svömmer; Sw. svima, to swoon.]

1. To float; to be supported on water or other fluid; not to sink. Most species of wood will swim in water. Any substance will swim, whose specific gravity is less than that of the fluid in which it is immersed.
2. To move progressively in water by means of the motion of the hands and feet, or of fins. In Paris, boys are taught to swim by instructors appointed for that purpose. – Is. xxv. Leap in with me into this angry flood, / And swim to yonder point. – Shak.
3. To float; to be borne along by a current. In all states there are men who will swim with the tide of popular opinion.
4. To glide along with a smooth motion, or with a waving motion. She with pretty and with swimming gait … – Shak. A hov'ring mist came swimming o'er his sight. – Dryden.
5. To be dizzy or vertiginous; to have a waving motion of the head or a sensation of that kind, or a reeling of the body. The head swims when we walk on high.
6. To be floated; to be overflowed or drenched; as, the earth swims in rain. – Spectator. Sudden the ditches swell, the meadows swim. – Thomson. All the night I make my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. – Ps. vi.
7. To overflow; to abound; to have abundance. They now swim in joy. – Milton.

SWIM, v.t.

1. To pass or move on; as, to swim a stream. Deer are known to swim rivers and sounds. Sometimes he thought to swim the stormy main. – Dryden.
2. To immerse in water that the lighter parts may swim; as, to swim wheat for seed. – Encyc.

SWIM'MER, n.

1. One that swims.
2. A protuberance on the leg of a horse. – Far. Dict.
3. An order of fowls that swim are called swimmers. They are webfooted, as the duck and goose.

SWIM'MING, n.

1. The act or art of moving on the water by means of the limbs; a floating.
2. Dizziness.

SWIM'MING, ppr.

Floating on a fluid; moving on a fluid; having a waving or reeling motion; overflowing; abounding.

SWIM'MING-LY, adv.

Smoothly; without obstruction; with great success. [Not elegant.]

SWIN'DLE, v.t. [D. zwendelen.]

To cheat and defraud grossly, or with deliberate artifice; as, as to swindle a man out of his property.