dial. [Origin obscure; perhaps related to SWATHE sb.2, as if = covering, integument.] The pod or husk of peas, beans, etc.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, V. xviii. 695. They must bee gathered … presently vpon their being ripe, for else they drie vp and fall out of their swads.
1658. Evelyn, Fr. Gard. (1675), 197. Gather them when you first perceive their swads below to open and shead.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xviii. 145. The Bean is not seen till … its swad or hull be shaled.
1819. R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 94. They peltet ilk udder wi’ swads.
1832. Scoreby Farm Rep., 19, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. It is the stem and leaf [of beans] that is wanted, more than the swad or grain.
1902. Speaker, 26 April, 100/1. The pods hang down, and only the swad is used for feeding cattle.
