[app. f. SWAG v. + -ER5. Cf. the following:—
1598. Chapman, Achilles Shield, To the Vnderstander B 2. Swaggering is a new worde amongst them, and rounde headed custome giues it priuiledge with much imitation, being created as it were by a naturall Prosopopeia without etimologie or deriuation.]
1. intr. To behave with an air of superiority, in a blustering, insolent or defiant manner; now esp. to walk or carry oneself as if among inferiors, with an obtrusively superior or insolent air.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. i. 79. What hempen home-spuns haue we swaggering here, So neere the Cradle of the Faierie Queene?
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 6. The cause that now they Swagger, and are masterlesse abroad, is because they were never well mastered at home.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 323. Antonius … sent away P. Ventidius thither to command in chiefe, whilest himselfe swaggered and revelled (drunken beast as hee was) at Athens.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, II. iii. [He] became so insolent … that he would always affect to swagger and look big as he passed by me.
1765. Goldsm., Ess., x. The bunters who swagger in the streets of London.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 66. He took complete possession of the house, swaggering all over it.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xxii. 113. [He] swaggered about like an aide-de-camp at a review.
1891. E. Gosse, Gossip in Library, xii. 150. We may think of him as swaggering in scarlet regimentals.
With it. 1612. Rowlands, Knave of Harts (Hunter. Cl.), 5. To take a purse, or make a Fray, Tis we that swagger it away.
a. 1656. Capel, Rem. (1658), To Rdr. Alcibiades could swagger it at Athens.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 281. They should … swagger it out bravely in their trappings and chains of gold.
transf. 1613. Jackson, Creed, II. xvi. § 7. To see a grande demure Schoole Diuine,… swaggering it in the metaphoricall cut.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 61. It was Atheism openly Swaggering, under the glorious Appearance of Wisdom and Philosophy.
1827. Scott, Chron. Canongate, v. A sort of pageant, where trite and obvious maxims are made to swagger in lofty and mystic language.
b. spec. To talk blusteringly; to hector; † hence, to quarrel or squabble with; also, to grumble. Now only (directly transf. from prec. sense), to talk boastfully or braggingly.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 107. Hee will not swagger with a Barbarie Henne, if her feathers turne backe in any shew of resistance. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., IV. vii. 131. A Rascall that swagger’d with me last night.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 31. Wise men in Greece in the meane while [were trivial] to swagger so aboute a whore [sc. Helen].
1601. ? Marston, Pasquil & Kath. (1878), III. 4. Hee dings the pots about, cracks the glasses, swaggers with his owne shaddow.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 236. Some of them beganne very insolently to swagger with me, because I durst reprehend their religion.
1644. Trevor, in T. Carte, Ormond (1735), III. 267. Sir George Radcliffe and Bathe are very violent, which makes the Irish swagger very severely.
1650. H. More, Observ., in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656), 127. You swagger and take on … as if … you were of the same fraternity with the highest Theomagicians in the World.
1664. [J. Scudamore], Homer à la Mode, 1. One Captaine at another swaggers.
1665. Glanvill, Scepsis Sci., Address p. iv. The disputes of Men that love to swagger for Opinions.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, III. III. 313. The Captains swagger’d [orig. brontolavano = grumbled], that they were not obey’d by their Souldiers.
1736. Sheridan, Lett. to Swift, 31 July. You may think I swagger, but as I hope to be saved it is true.
1854. J. Hannay, Sat. & Satirists, i. 28. The fellow swaggers and chuckles over every item of his own feast to the men he is entertaining.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), xiii. 309. I will not say that no mountaineer ever swaggers.
1889. The County, viii. I. 114. It pays him to have pretty girls about the house and to swagger about his goodness to them.
c. trans. To influence, force or constrain by blustering or hectoring language; to bring into or out of a state by blustering talk.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 240. And ’chud ha’ bin zwaggered out of my life. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., V. ii. 136. Will he swagger himselfe out on’s owne eyes?
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. ix. 655. The Indian iagges himselfe out of humane lineaments the other swaggers himselfe further out of all ciuill and Christian ornaments.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., V. § 30. These quick Answers from the King … made it evident to them that he would be no more Swaggered into concessions.
1728. Swift, Acc. Crt. & Emp. Japan, ¶ 12. He would swagger the boldest men into a dread of his power.
2. intr. To sway, lurch; Sc. to stagger.
1724. Ramsay, Vision, xix. Staggirrand, and swaggirrand, They stoyter hame to sleip.
1825–80. Jamieson, To Swagger, to stagger, to feel as if intoxicated, Moray.
1845. Bailey, Festus (ed. 2), 239. The large o’erloaded wealthy-looking wains Quietly swaggering home through leafy lanes.
b. causatively.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 60. I asked a girl … whether her tray was heavy to carry. ‘After eight hours at it,’ she answered, ‘it swaggers me, like drink.’
