S W E 
My pity hath been halm to heal their wounds. 
My mildness hath allay’d their swelling griefs. Shakspeare. 
To look big.—Here he comes, swelling like a Turkey- 
cock. Shakspeare. —To be turgid. Used of style. 
Peleus and Telephus exil’d and poor, 
Forget their swelling and gigantic words. Roscommon. 
Toprotuberate.—This iniquity shall be as a breach ready 
to fall swelling out in a high wall. Isa. —To rise into ar¬ 
rogance ; to be elated. 
In all things else above our humble fate, 
Your equal mind yet swells not into state. Dry den. 
To be inflated with anger. 
The hearts of princes kiss obedience, 
So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits 
They swell and grow as terrible as storms. Shakspeare. 
To grow upon the view. 
O for a muse of fire, that would ascend 
The brightest heaven of invention! 
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, 
And monarchsto behold the swelling scene. Shakspeare. 
It implies commonly a notion of something wrong.—Im¬ 
moderate valour swells into a fault. Addison. 
To SWELL, v. a. To cause to rise or encrease; to make 
tumid. 
Wind, blow the earth into the sea, 
Or swell the curled waters ’bove the main. Shakspeare. 
To aggravate; to heighten.—It is low ebb with his accu¬ 
ser, when such peccadillos are put to swell the charge. At- 
terbury. —To raise to arrogance. 
The king of men, who swoln with pride, 
Refus’d his presents, and his prayers deny’d. Dryden. 
SWELL, s. Extension of bulk. 
The swan’s down feather. 
That stands upon the swell at full of tide. 
And neither way inclines. Shakspeare. 
The fluctuating motion of the sea, after the expiration of 
a storm ; also, the surf. 
SWELL, a parish of England, in Somersetshire; 4 miles 
west-south-west of Langport. 
SWELL, Lower and Upper, two adjoining parishes of 
England, in Gloucestershire; 1§ mile west-by-north of 
Stow-on-the-Wold. 
SWE'LLING, s. Morbid tumour.—There is not a chron¬ 
ical disease that more frequently introduces the distemper I 
am discoursing of, than strumous orscrophulous swellings 
or ulcers. Blackmore. —Protuberance; prominence..—The 
superfices of such plates are not even, but have many cavi¬ 
ties and swellings, which, how shallow soever, do a little 
vary the thickness of the plate. Newton. —Effort fora vent. 
—My heart was torn in pieces to see the husband suppressing 
and keeping down the swellings of his grief. Tatler. 
To SWELT, v. n. To break out in sweat, if that be the 
meaning. Dr. Johnson.—I rather take it for a poetical 
variation of swelled. Mason. —With huge impatience he 
inly swell. Spenser. 
To SWELT, v. n. [j'pelcan, Sax. to die; swiltan, 
Goth.] To faint; to swoon. Still a northern expression. 
—Wc e that made his heart to swelt. Chaucer. 
To SWELT, v. a. To overpower as with heat; to cause 
to faint. This, according to Mr. Pegge, is at present a Der¬ 
byshire term.—Is the sun to be blamed that the traveller’s 
cloak swells him with heat ? Bp. Hall. 
To SWE'LTER, c. n. To be pained with heat. 
If the sun’s excessive heat 
Makes our bodies swelter. 
To an osier hedge we get 
For a friendly shelter; 
There we may 
Think and pray. 
Before death 
Stops our breath. Chalkhill. 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1008. 
S W E 793 
To SWE'LTER, ». a. To parch or dry up with heat.— 
Some would always have long nights and short days; others 
again long days and short nights; one climate would be 
scorched and sweltered with everlasting dog-days, while an 
eternal December blasted another. Bentley. 
SWE'LTRY, adj. Suffocating with heat. 
SWEPSTER, a parish of England, in Leicestershire; 4J 
miles south-by-east of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Population 
520. 
SWEPT. The participle and preterite of sweep. 
SWERD, s. See Sward. 
To SWERD, v. n. See To Sward. 
SWERTIA [so named by Linnaeus, in honour of Email 
Swert, a cultivator of bulbs and flowers in Holland], in 
Botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order digynia, natu¬ 
ral order of rotacae, gentianae (Juss.) —Generic Character:— 
Calyx: perianth five-parted, flat, permanent; segments 
lanceolate. Corolla, one-petalled, wheel-shaped; border 
flat, five-parted; segments lanceolate, bigger than the calyx, 
with the claws connected. Nectaries ten, as it were two dots 
in the base of each segment of the corolla within, excavated, 
girt with small erect bristles. Stamina: filaments five, awl- 
shaped, from erect spreading, shorter than the corolla. An¬ 
thers incumbent. Pistil: germ ovate-oblong. Style none. 
Stigmas two, simple. Pericarp: capsule round, acuminate 
at both ends, one-celled, two-valved. Seeds numerous, 
small, fastened to the suture of the capsule. There are spe¬ 
cies with four-cleft flowers. The nectaries in one species 
project beneath in horns. Essential Character. —Corolla, 
wheel-shaped. Nectariferous pores at the base of the seg¬ 
ments of the corolla. Caps, one-celled, two-valved. 
1. Swertia perennis, marsh swertia, or felwort.—Corollas 
five-cleft; peduncles four-cornered, awl-shaped; stem undi¬ 
vided; root-leaves oval. This is a handsome plant, with 
a perennial root composed of long whitish fibres.—Native 
of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Siberia, in 
alpine bogs. It is a doubtful native of Britain. 
2. Swertia difformis.—Corollas five-cleft, the termina¬ 
ting one, six-cleft; peduncles, very long; leaves linear. 
The flowers are white.—Native of Virginia. 
3. Swertia decumbens.—Corollas five-parted; leaves li¬ 
near lanceolate; nectaries ten, bristly.—Native of Arabia 
Felix. 
4. Swertia corniculata.—Corollas four-cleft, four-horned. 
—Native of Siberia, where, for its grateful bitterness, it is re¬ 
ceived among the domestic remedies of the inhabitants. 
5. Swertia dichotoma.—Corollas four-cleft, hornless, pe¬ 
duncles nodding; leaves elliptic; stem branched.—Native 
of eastern Siberia: it flowers in August; the preceding in 
July. 
6. Swertia tetrapetala.—Corollas four-cleft, hornless ; pe¬ 
duncles erect; leaves lanceolate; stem simple.—Native of 
Kamtschatka. 
To SWERVE, v. n. [ swerven, Saxon and Dutch.] To 
wander; to rove. 
The swerving vines on the tall elm prevail, 
Unhurt by southern showers or northern hail. Dryden. 
To deviate; to depart from rule, custom, or duty. 
Were I the fairest youth 
That ever made the eye swerve. Shakspeare. 
To ply; to bend. 
Now their mightiest quell’d, the battle swerv'd 
With many an inroad gor’d. Milton. 
To climb on a narrow body. 
She fled, returning by the way she went, 
And swerv'd along her bow with swift ascent. Dryden. 
SWE'RVING, s. The act of departing from rule, cus¬ 
tom, or duty.-—Annihilation in the course of nature, defect, 
and swerving in the creature, would immediately follow. 
Hakewill. 
SWETENHAM, a parish of England, in Cheshire, on 
the river Dane ; 5 miles north-west of Congleton. 
9 Q SWETOE, 
