swill 
SWlll 3 (swil), H. [Cf. swale 1 .] A shade. Jlnlli- 
well. [Prov. Eng.] 
swill-bowlt (swil'bol), . [Early mod. E. 
swilbol, sicielbolle; < swill 1 + bowl 1 .] A drun- 
kard. [Slang.] 
Lucius Cotta . . . was taken for the greatest swielbolle 
of wyne in the woorlde. 
Udall, tr. of Apophthegms of Erasmus, p. 307. 
SWiller (swil'er), n. [< swiin + -er 1 .] One who 
swills, (a) One who washes dishes, etc.; a scullion. Hal- 
liwell. (b) A glutton or drunkard. 
swilley 1 (swil'i), n. [< neftP, v.] An eddy or 
whirlpool. [Prov. Eng.] 
SWilley 2 (swil'i), n. [< swell.'] Same as swelly; 
also, in the Yorkshire coal-fields, an area of 
coal separated from the main basin, forming a 
kind of detached coal-field, very subordinate in 
size to the main one. 
swilling (swil'ing), n. [Verbal n. of swill 1 , v.] 
1. The act of drinking to excess. 2. pi. Same 
as swill 1 , 2. 
Now they follow the flend. as the bear doth the train of 
honey, and the sow the swillinys, till they be brought into 
the slaughter-house. 
J. Bradford, Letters (Parker Soc., 1853), II. 79. 
swill-milk (swil'rnilk), n. Milk produced by 
cows fed on swill, especially on slops from dis- 
tilleries. [Local, TJ. S.] 
Parties who produce swill-milk for sale in large cities 
find swill to be the cheapest food for the production of 
milk, and consequently use it to excess. Science, X. 72. 
swill-pott (swil'pot), . A drunkard ; a sot. 
[Slang.] 
What doth that part of our army in the meantime which 
overthrows that unworthy swill-pot Grangousier? 
Uryuhart, tr. of Rabelais, i. 38. (Dames.) 
swill-tubt (swil'tub), n. A drunkard; a swill- 
pot. N. Bailey, tr. of Colloquies of Erasmus, 
p. 261. [Slang.] 
swim 1 (swim), v.; pret. swam or swum, pp. 
swum, ppr. swimming. [< ME. swimmen, swym- 
men (pret. swam, pi. stvummen, swommen), < AS. 
sioimman (pret. swam, sworn, pi. swummon, pp. 
swummen) = OS. sioimman = MD. swimmen, 
swemmen, D. zwemmen = MLG. swemmen, LG. 
swimmen = OHG. sioimman, MHG. swimmen, G. 
schwimmen = Icel. svimma, symja = Sw. simma 
= Dan. svomme (Goth, not recorded), swim ; cf. 
Icel. svamla, swim, suwla, be flooded ; Goth. 
swumsl, a pond. Hence ult. sound 2 ; cf. swamp, 
sump.'] L intrans. 1. To float on or in water 
or other fluid. 
He lep in the water, . . . 
& swam swiftili awei. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2760. 
Plankes and lighter things swimme and are preserved, 
whereas the more weighty sinke and are lost. 
Aubrey, Lives (Thomas Hobbes). 
Five or six Heaps of Cabbage, Carrots, Turnips, or some 
other Herbs or Boots, well pepper'd and salted, and swim- 
ming in Butter. Quoted in Ashton's Social Life in Reign 
[of Queen Anne, I. 186. 
2. To move on or in water by natural means of 
locomotion, as an animal, many of which can 
so move, though the water be not their natural 
element, and swimming not their habit. The 
act is accomplished in many ways, by different movements 
of the body or of the limbs, or by various combinations of 
such motions. Man swims with the arms and legs, or with 
the legs alone, in an attitude and with an action most 
like that of the frog. Ordinary quadrupeds can swim 
with movements of the legs much like walking. Some of 
these are specially fitted for swimming without decided 
modification of structure, as the otter, the beaver, the 
muskrat, though often in these cases the tail takes some 
part in propelling or guiding the animal ; other mammals, 
as the pinnipeds, and especially the cetaceans and sireni- 
ans, swim more or less exactly like fishes, the propulsion 
being mainly from the movements of the tail and hinder 
part of the body, and the flippers or fins being mainly 
used for steadying the body or guiding the course. All 
such mammals swim under as well as on the water. Web- 
footed birds, and some whose feet are scarcely or not web- 
bed, swim on or under water, chiefly by means of the feet ; 
but many of them accomplish a kind of flight under water 
with the wings, and use the feet chiefly as rudders. Such 
is especially the case with penguins, whose wings are 
flipper-like ; and with the dippers (Cinclidx), which are 
thrush-like birds, and fly under water as they do in the 
air. without using their feet at all. Aquatic serpents 
swim with a wriggling or writhing motion of the whole 
body like that with which they crawl on land ; in some of 
these, however, the tail is flattened to serve as a fln. (See 
Hydrophidee, and cuts under sea-serpent, Hydrophis, and 
Platurus.) Aquatic anurous batrachians swim with their 
legs alone, when adult; their larvae (tadpoles), and all 
tailed batrachians, swim like fishes, by movements of the 
hind part of the body and tail. Aquatic turtles swim 
with all four legs, and especially, in the cases of the marine 
forms, with their enlarged fore flippers. Nearly all crus- 
taceans are aquatic, and swim with very variously modi- 
fled limbs and tail, their natatorial organs being usually 
abdominal or postabdominal. (See swimmeret, pleopod, 
rhipidura.) Many insects swim by the movement of 
specially modified legs which serve as oars, or in the cases 
of lai'vir by undulatory movements of the whole body; 
some swim only on their backs, and others float walk or 
run on the surface of the water. A few mollusks, with- 
6112 
out shells, swim with an undulation of the body or of pro- 
cesses of the mantle, but their usual modes of swimming 
are unlike those of animals with ordinary limbs or tail ; 
some swim by energetic flapping of bivalved shells, others 
by ejecting a stream of water through siphons, or by set- 
ting a sort of sail which wafts them over the water. Aquatic 
worms swim by wriggling the whole body, and also by the 
action of multitudinous parapods or cilia. Jellyflshes 
and comb-jellies swim by rhythmical pulsations of a swim- 
ming-bell, or of the whole body, assisted or not by the ac- 
tion of some special organs. Animalcules swim mainly 
by ciliary action, but also by changes in the shapes of their 
bodies, and in some cases by special formations. See 
swimming-bell, -bladder, -Jin, -foot. 
Tyrants su-im safest in a crimson flood. 
Lust's Dominion, v. 1. 
Leap in with me into this angry flood, 
And swim to yonder point. Shah., J. C.,i. 2. 104. 
3. Hence, to move or be propelled on or through 
water by any means. 
Ure schip bigan to swymme 
To this londes brymme. 
King Horn (E. E. T. S.), 1. 189. 
4. To glide with a smooth motion, literally or 
figuratively. 
A hovering mist came swimming o'er his sight. 
Dryden. 
Life, death, time, and eternity were swimming before 
his eyes. Scott, Quentin Durward, vi. 
Beautiful cloud ! with folds so soft and fair, 
Swimming in the pure quiet air ! 
Bryant, To a Cloud. 
5. To be flooded; be overflowed or drenched. 
All the night make I my bed to sivim; I water my 
couch with my tears. Ps. vi. 6. 
The most splendid palace in the world, which they left 
swimming in blood. Burke, Eev. in France. 
She sprang 
To meet it, with an eye that swum in thanks. 
Tennyson, Princess, vi. 
6. To overflow ; abound ; have abundance. 
Colde welle stremes, nothyng dede, 
That swymen ful of sraale fishes lite. 
Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls, 1. 188. 
II. trans. 1. To pass or cross by swimming; 
move on or in by swimming: as, to swim a 
stream. 
Sometimes he thought to sunm the stormy main. 
Dryden, jEneid, T, 966. 
2. To immerse in water, that the lighter parts 
may swim : as, to swim wheat for seed. 3. To 
cause to swim or float: as, to swim a horse 
across a river. 4. To furnish with sufficient 
depth of water to swim in. 
The water did not quite swim the horse, but the banks 
were so steep that he could not get out of it till he had 
ridden several hundred yards and found the bank less 
steep. The Century, XXX. 286. 
swim 1 (swim), n. [< swim 1 , v."] 1. The act of 
swimming; period or extent of swimming : as, 
to take a swim. 2. A smooth swaying gliding 
motion. 
Both the swim and the trip are properly mine ; every- 
body will affirm it that has any judgment in dancing. 
B. Jonson, Cynthia's Bevels, ii. 1. 
Your Arms do but hang on, and you move perfectly 
upon Joints. Not with a Swim of the whole Person. 
Steele, Tender Husband, iii. 1. 
3. The sound or swimming-bladder of a fish. 
There was a representation of innumerable distinct 
bodies in the form of a globe, not much unlike the swims 
of some fish. Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 328. 
4. A part of a stream, or other piece of water, 
deep and free from rocks and other obstruc- 
tions, and much frequented by fish. [Eng.] 
Barbel, through a series of cold nights, have run into 
deeper swims, and will soon be lost sight of for the winter. 
The Field, Oct. 3, 1886. (Encyc. Diet.) 
In or Into the SWlm, in the current ; on the inside ; 
identified with the current of events ; in the secret : as, 
to be in the swim in business or in society. [Colloq.] 
His neighborhood is getting into the swim of the real- 
estate movement. Harper's May., LXXVIII. 313. 
The confidential communications constantly made by 
those in the swim to journalists in their confidence. 
Contemporary Xev., XLIX. 668. 
A girl in the swim hasn't time to paint or to draw, and 
there is no music listened to from amateurs. 
The Century, XL. 275. 
swim 2 (swim), n. [< ME. swime, sweme, swaime, 
a dizziness, swoon, trance, < AS. swima, a 
swoon, swimming in the head, = OFries. swima 
= MD. swijme, D. zwijm, a swoon, = Icel. gvimi, 
dizziness (sveimr, a bustle, stir, = Norw. sveim, 
sickness: see sweam), = Dan. svime, a fainting- 
fit; cf. Sw. svimma, be dizzy, svindel, dizziness, 
si'imning, a swoon, Dan. svimle, be giddy, be- 
svime, swoon, svimmel, giddiness ; with forma- 
tive -m (-ma), from the root of OHG. swinan, 
MHG. swinen, fade away, vanish, swoon, OHG. 
swintan, swoon, vanish, MHG. sicinden, faint, 
swoon, G. schwincten, vanish, fade away, scltwin- 
del, vertigo, Icel. svia, svina, subside, as a swell- 
swimming-bath 
ing, Sw. svindel, giddiness, srinnn, disappear, 
Dan. srinde, fade away, etc. Cf. sweam, swrani- 
ous, sweamisli, squeamous, squeamish.] A dizzi- 
ness; swoon. 
He swounnes one the swrathe [sward], and one sicym 
fallis. Morte Arthure (E. E. T. 8.), 1. 4247. 
swim 2 (swim), v. i. ; pret. swam or swum, pp. 
swum, ppr. swimming. [< swim 2 , n. This verb 
is now usually confused with swim 1 (used as in 
quots. under I., 4), from which it takes its prin- 
cipal parts.] To be dizzy or vertiginous ; have 
giddiness ; have a sensation as if the head were 
turning round ; also, to have, or appear to have, 
a whirling motion : as, everything swam before 
his eyes. 
At length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam 
in his head, his head gradually declined, and he fell into 
a deep sleep. Irving, Sketch-Book, p. 55. 
I read . . . 
Till my head swims. Tennyson, Holy Grail. 
SWimbelt, [Also swymbel; ME., for "stcimel; 
cf. Dan. svimle, be giddy: see swim 2 .] A giddy 
motion. 
A moaning or sighing noise caused by the wind, 
In which ther ran a swymbel in a swough, 
As though a storm schulde bersten every bough. 
Chaucer, Knight's Tale (Harl. MS.), 1. 1121. 
swim-bladder (swim'blad"er), n. Same as 
swimming-bladder. 
swimet, " See swim 2 , n. 
SWimmable (swim'a-bl), a. [< swim 1 + -able.] 
Capable of being swum. [Bare.] 
I ... swam everything swimmable. 
M. W. Savage, Reuben Medlicott, ii. 3. (Davits.) 
swimmer (swim'er), n. [< ME. swimmere, swym- 
mere; < swim 1 + -er 1 .] 1. One who swims. 
A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry 
Of some strong swimmer in his agony. 
Byron, Don Juan, ii. 63. 
2. An animal which is well adapted for swim- 
ming, or which swims habitually. Specifically 
(a) In ornith., a swimming bird ; a natatorial web-footed 
or fin-footed bird ; any member of the old order Natatores; 
a water-fowl. (&) In entom. : (I) A swimming beetle ; an 
aquatic carnivorous pentamerous coleopter ; a member of 
the group Hydradephaga or Hydrocanthari. (2) A swim- 
ming-spider; a water-spider; a member of the araneidan 
group Natantes, which spins a web under water. See cut 
under Argyroneta. 
3. A protuberance on the leg of a horse. 4. 
Something that swims or floats or is used as a 
float. 
Then take good cork, so much as shall suffice 
For every line to make his swimmer fit. 
J. Dennys (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 151). 
5. In brewing, a metallic vessel floated on the 
wort in a fermenting- tun, and used to hold ice 
or iced water for absorbing the heat produced 
by the fermentation. 6. A swimming-bladder. 
A thing almost like the swimmer of a fish in colour and 
bigness. T. Stevens (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 131). 
Short-tailed swimmers. See short-tailed. 
swimmeret (swim'er-et), n. [< swimmer + -et.] 
In Crustacea, a swimming-foot ; a pleopod ; an 
abdominal limb or appendage usually adapted 
for swimming, and thus distinguished from the 
ambulatory or chelate thoracic limbs, fitted for 
walking or seizing. In the lobster there are five 
pairs of swimmerets^ each consisting of a developed en- 
dopodite and exopodite, the last pair, more highly modified 
than the rest, forming with a median piece or telson the 
large flaps or tail. (See rhipidura.) Swimmerets are 
also used for other purposes, as the carrying of the spawn, 
coral, or berry of the female. 
swimming 1 (swim'ing), . [< ME. swymmyngc; 
verbal n. of swim 1 , v.] The act or art of sus- 
taining and propelling the body in water. 
Peacham, describing the requisites for a complete gen- 
tleman, mentions swimming as one. 
Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 151. 
swimming 1 (swim'ing), p. a. 1. Able to swim; 
habitually moving in or on the water; natato- 
rial, as a bird or an insect. 2. Adapted to, 
used for, or connected with swimming: as, a 
swimming action or progression. 3. Filled to 
overflowing. 
From her swimming Eyes began to pour 
Of softly falling Rain a Silver Show'r. 
Congreve, Tears of Amaryllis. 
4. Floating; fluctuating; wavering. 
Proceeding to comment on the novelty of his method, 
he admits however this " freeing of a direction " to be dis- 
cernible in the received philosophies as far as a swimming 
(i. e., vague and shifting) anticipation could take hold. 
E. A. Abbott, Bacon, p. 351. 
swimming 2 (swim'ing), n. [Verbal n. of swim 2 , 
v.] Dizziness. 
Cord. How does he with the swimming of his head? 
JUos. O, sir, 'tis past the scotoray. 
B. Jonson, Volpone, i. 1. 
swimming-bath (swim'ing-bath), n. A bath 
large enough for swimming. 
