sb. pl. Sc. Also 6 swaits, swaittis, 9 swatts. [repr. OE. swatan ‘cervisia,’ beer.] New small beer or ale; also see quot. 1888.
1508. Dunbar, Flyting, 130. Sueir swappit swanky, swynekeper ay for swaittis.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxiii. 261. Now drink thay Mylk and Swaits in steid of Aill.
c. 1682. F. Sempill, Blythsome Wedding, 69. There will be … swats, and scraped paunches.
1717. Ramsay, Elegy on Lucky Wood, vi. She ne’er … kept dow’d tip within her waws, But reaming swats.
1791. Burns, Tam o’ Shanter, 40. Reaming swats, that drank divinely.
1871. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, xxx. However, he took a draught of swats (small ale).
1888. Edmondston & Saxby, Home Naturalist, 209. Swatts is the water that covers sowens, and is used to thin the sowens, or as a drink.
