sb. pl. [See SWADDLING vbl. sb. and CLOUT sb.] = prec.
1530. Palsgr., 819/2. En maillot, in their swadlyng cloutes.
1550. Harington, trans. Cicero’s Bk. Friendship (1562), 63 b. That euen as wee came together with them in our swadling cloutes, so we might kepe them compaignie to the windyng sheete.
1592. Greene, Repentance, Wks. (Grosart), XII. 169. I … was euen brought vp from my swadling clouts in wickednes, my infancy was sin.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 72 b. When mine adverse party was yet scarcely borne, or lay in her swathling clouts.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. ii. § 103. A Godfather, which (with Swadling-clouts) they conceive belong to Infants alone.
1658. Osborn, Q. Eliz., Ep. Otherwise the most part of New Books … had still been buried in their Swadling-clouts for want of Transcription.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. Author’s Apol. 147. Truth, although in Swadling-clouts … Informs the Judgment.
