U.S. Also swod. [?] A thick mass, clump or bunch; hence, a great quantity (Also pl.).
1828–32. Webster, Swad.… In New England, a lump, mass or bunch; also, a crowd. (Vulgar.)
1833. [Seba Smith], Lett. J. Downing, ii. (1835), 32. Enoch Bissel, as sly as a weasel, slipped in [i.e., into the field-piece] a swad of grass that hit Mr. Van Buren’s horse. Ibid., iii. 41. There was a swod of fine folks.
1840. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. III. vi. 83. How is colonist able to pay for all this almighty swad of manufactured plunder.
1844. ‘J. Slick,’ High Life N. York, II. 196. The thick swad of hair that hung … all round that harnsome head of her’n.
1855. Haliburton, Nat. & Hum. Nat., II. 124. It ain’t good to use such a swad of words.
