1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 7 July. A good swingeing agitation against the House of Lords.
Swing-tail, subs. phr. (old).—A
hog (Grose).
Swinny, adj. (common).—Drunk:
see Screwed. Also Swinnied.
Swipe, subs. (old: now colloquial).—1.
A blow delivered with the
full length of the arm. As verb
= to drive (q.v.); to bang.
Hence swiper = a hard hitter, a
Slogger (q.v.), a knocker-out
(q.v.). At Harrow = to birch.
c. 1200. Life St. Katherine [E.E.T.S.], 2452. Swipte hire of that heaned.
1857. Hughes, Tom Browns Schooldays, ii. viii. Jack Raggles, the long-stop, toughest and burliest of boys, commonly called Swiper Jack. . . . The first ball of the over, Jack steps out and meets, swiping with all his force.
1886. Field, 4 Sep. In driving for Tel-el-Kebir, Kirk had a long swipe off the tee.
1901. Free Lance, 9 Mar., 558, 2. I am indebted to Mr. Gilbert Jessop, the well-known bowler and swiper (I hope the word has not gone out), for the excellent and temperate article which he contributes to another part of this number.
1903. Punch's Almanack, 11. Dicky Sinclair . . . hit a tremendous swipe, and ran eight before they had the sense to call 'Lost Ball.'
2. (common).—In pl. = thin, washy beer; small beer: also (schools) any poor tipple. As verb = to drink. Hence swipey (or swiped) = drunk; and swipes = a potman (Grose). Also see Purser's swipes.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, xiii. Small swipes—more of malt than hop—with your leave I'll try your black bottle.
1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 32. I have nought to drink but swipes.
1843. Dickens, Chuzzlewit, xxviii. He's only a little swipey, you know.
Verb. (American).—To steal: see Prig.
1900. Flynt, Tramps, 43. Some one suggested a clever plan by which even a can of preserves could be 'swiped' as they called it.
1903. Kennedy, Sailor Tramp, i. iv. That is rotten hard work. It's a job I'd swipe from no man.
Swish, verb. (common).—To flog.
Hence swishing = a thrashing.
1855-7. Thackeray, Misc., ii. 470. I pity that young nobleman's or gentleman's case: Dr. Wordsworth and assistants would swish that error out of him in a way that need not here be mentioned.
d. 1876. M. Collins, Thoughts in my Garden, ii. 22. He has been known to argue with the head-master as to whether he ought to be swished.
1884. Yates, Auto., i. ii. To smoke a penny cigar with constant anticipation of being caught and swished.
1891. Harry Fludyer, 47. He complained of us and Tipkins, and I got swished the other day.
Swished, adj. (old).—Married (Grose).
Swish-swash, subs. phr. (old).—Any
weak beverage; slops
(q.v.).
1577. Harrison, Descr. Eng. [Holinshed], 170. There is a kind of swish-swash made also in Essex, and diverse other places, with honicombs and water, which the homelie countrie wives, putting some pepper and a little other spice among, call mead, verie good in mine opinion for such as love to be loose-bodied at large, or a little eased of the cough; otherwise it differeth so much from the true metheglin as chalke from cheese.
1884. Dowell, Taxes in England, iv. 55. The small sour swish-swash of the poorer vintages of France.
Swish-tail, subs. phr. (old
poachers').—1. A pheasant
(Grose). Also (2) a horse with
undocked tail; and (3) a schoolmaster,
a bumbrusher (q.v.).
