[app. of dial. origin (see swail in Eng. Dial. Dict.); prob. frequent. f. SWAY v. + -LE, but parallels are wanting. Cf. Shropshire dial. swayl-pole = sway-pole.] intr. To move or sway up and down or from side to side. Hence Swaling vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; also Swalingly adv., with a swaying motion.
1820. Blackw. Mag., VII. 676. Here’s a jerked feather that swales in a bonnet. Ibid. (1822), XII. 761. With his eternal sidling and sliding about,… and swaling with his coat-tails. Ibid., 782. Treading the street with his corn-troubled toes,… swalingly goes the kind Cockney King. Ibid. (1824), XV. 86. He drops a wing … with a swaling and graceful amorousness.
1827. Praed, Red Fisherm., 221. As the swaling wherry settles down.
1863. Sala, Captain Dangerous, I. iv. 123. The great plumed hat … flapped and swaled over my eyes.
1895. A. Dobson, Poems, Sundial, xi. A soldier gallant…, Swinging a beaver with a swaling plume.
