Forms: α. 5 swaþele, 6–7 swathel, swathle. β. 4 suadil, 6 swadel(l, -il, swaddell, 6–7 swadle, 7 swoddle, 6– swaddle. [f. swath- (see SWATHE sb.2) + -LE, and related to swethle, SWEDDLE, as SWATHE to SWETHE; for the phonology (-dl- :— -þl-) cf. fiddle. The earliest form in the group to which this verb belongs is swaðelbond, SWADDLEBAND.]
1. trans. To bind (an infant) in swaddling-clothes.
α. a. 1425. [see SWADDLING-BAND].
1577, 1587. [see SWADDLED].
β. 13[?]. [see SWADDLING-BAND].
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W., 1495), 94. A lytyll bende to swadle a lytyll chylde beynge in his cradle.
1535. Coverdale, Luke ii. 12. Ye shal fynde the babe swadled, and layed in a maunger.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XI. li. I. 353. King Crœsus had a sonne, who lying swaddled [ed. 1634 swoddled] in his cradle, spake by that time he was sixe months old.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Mortification, i. Clothes are taken from a chest of sweets To swaddle infants.
1701. C. Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 27. The Children they Swaddle upon a Board.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med., i. (1790), 13. I have known a child seized with convulsion-fits soon after the midwife had done swaddling it.
1873. Rich, Dict. Rom. & Grk. Antiq. (1884), s.v. Fascia, Resembling … the manner in which an Italian peasant woman swaddles her offspring at the present day.
1879. Froude, Short Studies (1883), IV. v. 355. A bambino swaddled round with wrappings.
b. fig., now esp. with reference to the restriction of action of any kind.
1539. Bible (Great), Job xxxviii. 9. When I made the cloudes to be a couering for it, and swadled it wyth the darcke.
1613. W. Leigh, Drumme Devot., 15. When it pleased him to swaddle us in his mercy.
a. 1631. Donne, Anat. World, I. 348. When Nature was most busy, the first week Swadling the new-born earth.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 28. The English is the language with which we are swadled and rock’d asleep.
1770. Cumberland, West Indian, III. i. The sun, that … would not wink upon my nakedness, but swaddled me in the broadest, hottest glare of his meridian beams.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VIII. 137. In that state [sc. of aurelia] they are not entirely motionless, nor intirely swaddled up without form.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 267. [His thoughts] have been cramped and twisted and swaddled into lifelessness and deformity.
1831. Lady Granville, Lett., 16 Aug. (1894), II. 107. She looked infinitely handsomer than when in a satin frock, swaddled in jewels.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. iii. 56. You were born and swaddled in the purple of respectability.
1893. Sketch, 1 March, 260/1. The usages and traditions which govern, not to say swaddle, the ordinary theatrical manager.
c. Said of the swaddling-clothes. rare.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Epigr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 341/2. Clouts swaddle him, whom no Clouds circle can.
2. To wrap round with bandages; to envelop with wrappings; to swathe, bandage. Also with up.
α. 1597. Morley, Canzonets to Foure Voyces, x. Swathele me so that I may runne a gasping.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., III. 133. The corses lie … shrouded in a number of folds of linnen, swathled with bands of the same.
[Cf. 1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 29.]
β. 1522. More, De quat. Noviss., Wks. 80/1. Twise a day to swaddle and plaster his legge.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 121. To swadle a bowe much about wyth bandes.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, IX. 161. To swaddle vp the festred wound.
1589. Nashe, in Greene’s Menaphon, Ded. (Arb.), 12. The Scythians,… if they be at any time distressed with famin, take in their girdles shorter, and swaddle themselues streighter.
a. 1640. Day, Parl. Bees, v. (1881), 38. To have their temples girt and swadled up With night-caps.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 110. Cleft Graffs must be swadled with fine Earth, and Hay newly prepar’d.
1700. S. L., trans. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 141. As for our Ship, we were forced to Swaddle it with a four double Cable Rope.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 90, ¶ 7. They immediately began to swaddle me up in my Night-Gown with long Pieces of Linnen.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scotl. in 1772, 284. His ears had never been swaddled down, and they stood out.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xxix. 402. We swaddle our feet in old cloth, and guard our hands with fur mits.
1876. Morris, Sigurd, IV. 385. With the golden gear was he swaddled, and he held the red-gold rod.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 763. The patient may be kept thus swaddled for six, eight or ten hours.
† 3. To beat soundly. colloq. Obs.
c. 1570. Misogonus, II. i. 62. Thou disardly dronkerd … ile swaddle your skinn. Ibid., iv. 32. Gett me dice or I shall yow blesse Yf I haue them not quickly Ile swaddle yow wth a corde.
a. 1575. Wife Lapped in Morrelles Skin, 846, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 214. Thy bones will I swaddle.
1697. Harington, Nugæ Ant. (ed. Park, 1804), II. 98. Hercules … swadeled him thriftily with a good cudgell.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Burn. Pestle, II. iv. I know the place where he my loins did swaddle.
1649. Davenant, Love & Honour, I. i. 360. We swadled your duke home; he and the rest of your bruis’d countrymen have woundrous need Of capons grease.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xxvii. 131. A huge Sandal, with a Pitch fork in his hand, who us’d to … rib-roast, swaddle, and swindge them.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xxviii. If I, with this piece of oak, did not make you such an example … that it should be a proverb to the end of time how John Christie swaddled his wife’s fine leman!
