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.