Sc. and north. dial. [Perhaps related to SWAMP sb., the notion of ‘depression, subsidence’ being the connecting link; there is a remarkable parallel in dial. swank sb. = depression in the ground, deep hollow, bog, and swank adj. = thin in the belly.] Of a body that may be or is normally distended: That has sunk and become flat; thin from emptiness, as the breasts, the belly, etc.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxvii. (Machor), 1597. Sume [men] throu ydropesy sa gret Swolne þat þai ma ete no mete, Are mad swampe þar. Ibid., xl. (Ninian), 799.
a. 1583. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 776 (Tullibardine MS.). Swamp sandie, come fra candie, with grandie opprest.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 254. If in a woman with childe the breasts do suddenly fall swampe as we say, then will shee abort or miscarry.
1631. R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, iv. 28. A kind of light Pelsie corne, inclosed in certaine eares, which are long and swampe.
1684. Meriton, Yorksh. Dial., 30 (E.D.S.). Her Ewr’s but swampe, Shee’s nut for Milk, I trow.
a. 1708. T. Ward, Eng. Ref., II. (1710), 105. A useful Sursingle it was,… Which as his Paunch was Full or Swamp, He’d wider make, or straiter cramp.
1885. A. Munro, Siren Casket, 90. Their body compress’d and swamp as an eel.
1887. Service, Life Dr. Duguid, I. xxiv. 159. The mortclaith-like goons she puts on gie her a swamp, cauldrife, full-m’unted appearance.
