'Why don't you pay the girl her swindle?' = 'Why don't you give the girl her price?' Swindler (q.v.) is quite another matter, and all quots. for it, for subs. 1, and the verbal sense are there given for the sake of distinction.
1870. Legal Reports; 'Decision of Pigott, J.' As to the second plea that swindle had not a libellous meaning, this was in a great measure carried out by the plaintiff himself, who had advertised that he was getting up a swindle. In sporting circles they certainly did deal with an extraordinary vocabulary, and apparently did not use this word swindle in Dr. Johnson's sense. Ibid. 'Evidence in Davey v. Walmsley.' Mr. Hawkins—'Is the word swindle commonly applied to things like "specs."?' Witness (Mr. Paul Walmsley, Editor, Racing Investigator)—'Certainly! I never heard them called by any other name. It is a regular byword with us as a racing phrase. Lotteries are announced and commonly known as swindles.'
Swindler, subs. (old).—A cheat;
a rogue: spec. one who employs
petty or mean artifices, legal or
illegal, for defrauding others.
Hence swindle, subs. = a fraud,
a deception, an imposition; and
swindle, verb = to cheat, to
defraud. Whence, also, derivatives
such as swindleable,
swindlery, swindling, etc.
[Orig. used of German Jews who
settled in London, circa 1762.
Also by soldiers in the Seven
Years' War.]—Grose and Bee.
1776. Foote, Capuchin, ii. After that you turned swindler, and got out of gaol by an act for the relief of insolvent debtors.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Swindler . . . used to signify Cheats of every kind.
1785-6. Varenne, [Carlyle, Diamond Necklace, xvi., quoted in note 9]. 'Lamotte . . . under pretext of finding a treasure . . . had swindled one of them out of 300 livres.'
1837. Carlyle, French RevoL, ii. vi. Swindlery and blackguardism.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. Bedloe, a noted swindler, followed.
1866. Howells, Venetian Life, i. Let us take, for example, that pathetic swindle, the Bridge of Sighs.
d. 1876. M. Collins, Thoughts in my Garden, i. 283. I look easily swindle-*able.
1882. Wedgwood, Eng. Etym., s.v. Swindle. In a figurative sense the German schwindel is applied to dealings in which the parties seem to have lost their head, as we say, to have become dizzy over unfounded or unreasonable prospects of gain. The word may be translated madness, delusion. Then, in a factitive sense, schwindeler, one who induces delusions in others. 'Einem etwas abschwindeln,' to get something out of another by inducing delusions; to swindle him out of something.
Swine, subs. (common).—A term
of the utmost contempt. Hence
Swinish (B. E.)='greedy, gluttonous,
covetous.'
1597. Shakspeare, Richard III., v. 2. 10. This foul swine Lies . . . Near to the town of Leicester. [The boar was Richard's cognisance.]
1889. Lie. Vict. Gaz., 4 Jan. 'Aint that the swine of a snob that rushed me at Battersea?
1899. Whiteing, John St., ix. 'Git out, yer silly swine,' is the maiden's reply.
1003. Kennedy, Sailor Tramp, ii. iii. Sailor, it looks as if we were done for . . . That swine'll surely make us get off.
Phrases and Proverbial Sayings. 'Like a swine, never good until he come to the knife' (of a covetous person); to sing like a bird called a swine = to grunt (Ray); to cast pearls before swine (of unappreciated action or effort).
Swine-drunk, adj. phr. (old).—Beastly
drunk: see Screwed.
1592. Nashe, Works [Grosart, ii. 82]. Ape drunke . . . Lion drunke . . . Swine drunke . . . Sheepe drunke. . . .
