Adj. (common).—Tip-top (q.v.); swell (q.v.); extremely new.
1886. New York Tribune (Semi-Weekly), 2 Nov. His gambling parties were so swagger that rich money-lenders who wanted to extend their social relations did not mind to what extent they . . . lost money at them.
1897. Ouida, Massarines, 8. Lord, ma'am, they'll pocket the marrons glacés at the table d'hôte and take the matches away from their bedrooms; but, then, you see, ma'am, them as are swagger can do them things.
1900. White, West End, 43. 'We are now living in a very different style.' . . . 'It looks a great deal more swagger certainly.'
Swaining, subs. (common).—Love-making;
spooning (q.v.).
1839. Mrs. Trollope, Michael Armstrong, i. His general manner had a good deal of what in female slang is called swaining.
Swallow, subs. (once literary:
now vulgar or colloquial).—1.
The throat: also swallow-pipe;
(2) the act of swallowing;
and (3) a mouthful: hence (4)
taste, relish, inclination, or
capacity. As verb = to receive,
endure, or embrace credulously,
patiently, without examination,
scruple or reserve; occasionally
to swallow whole. (B. E.).
Hence swallowable = credible.
1596. Shakspeare, King John, iv. 2. 195. I saw a smith stand . . . With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for Meas., iii. 1. 235. Left her . . . swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonour.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, 92. The mother (not able to swallow her shame and grief) Cast herselfe into the lake to bee swallowed of the water.
1616-25. Court and Times Jas. I., ii. 442. [A man] swallows indignities.
1690. Locke, Human Understanding, iv. xx. 4. Here men . . . must . . . swallow down opinions as silly people do empiric pills, without knowing what they are made of.
1703. Farquhar, Inconstant, iii. 1. I have swallowed my words already; I have eaten them up.
1796. Wolcot ('Peter Pindar'), Works, 147. Each paunch with guttling was so swelled, Not one bit more could pass your swallow-pipe.
1834. Wilson, Noctes Ambros., Dec. Attend to the differences between a civilized swallow and a barbarous bolt.
1841. Punch, i. 169. Men with swallows like Thames Tunnels, in fact accomplished gaggers and unrivalled wiry watchers.
1849. Maitland, Essays on the Reformation, 315. An anecdote in its hundredth edition, and its most mitigated and swallowable form.
1885. Buck, Handbook of Med. Sci., v. 4. A swallow or two of hot milk sometimes aids in coughing up tenacious mucus.
1899. Westcott, David Harum, xxiii. She took a swallow of the wine. 'How do you like it?' asked David.
Phrases.—'One swallow does not make a spring' (Heywood, 1546 = proverbial); to swallow a spider = to become a bankrupt (Ray); 'You say true; will you swallow my knife?' (a sarcastic retort on an impossible story); to swallow a tavern token = to get drunk; to swallow the cackle = to learn a part (theatrical); 'He has swallowed a stake, and cannot stoop' (of a very upright unbending person).
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in Humour, i. 3. Drunk, sir! you hear not me say so: perhaps he swallowed a tavern token or some such device.
Swallow-tail, subs. phr. (old).—1.
See quot. 1544.
1544. Ascham, Toxophilus [Giles, ii. 130]. Having two points or barbs, looking backward to the stele and the feathers, which surely we call in English a broad arrow head, or a swallow-tail.
1828. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth, ii. 223. The English then strode forward, . . . and sent off their volleys of swallow-tails before we could call on St. Andrew.
