v. Sc. and north. dial. [Echoic. Cf. SQUATTER; also early mod.Du. swadderen to slaver (of serpents), to splash in water (Kilian), dial. zwadderen in the latter sense, WFlem. zwadderen to speak slaveringly, G. dial. schwadern to disturb (water), splash, be agitated (of liquids), to tipple, also to prattle, babble; f. root swad- (: swat-) + frequent, suffix -ER5.]
1. intr. To flutter and splash in water like ducks or geese; to splash water about or splash about in water; † fig. to wallow.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., I. xxv. In that desert … Quhair dragouns, lessertis, askis, edders swatterit, With mouthis gapand.
a. 1599. Rollock, Lect. Passion, etc. xxxviii. (1616), 371. Hee swatters and swimmes,… hee drownes not altogether.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall (1833), 20. Tymes wherein the world lay … swattering in all sorte of superstition.
1637. Rutherford, Lett to Lady Culross, 15 June. Oh to be swattering, & swimming over head & ears in Christ’s love!
a. 1800[?]. Twa Sisters, xi. in Child, Ballads (1882), I. 135. Aye she swattered [other vers. swittert] and aye she swam, Until she came to the mouth of the dam.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, xvii. Before he lap the window into the castle moat, and swattered through it like a wild duck. Ibid. (1821), Pirate, xxx. I swattered hard for my life, wi’ the help of ane of the oars.
1871. G. Lawrence, Anteros, xx. (1872), 177. ‘Pray, gently, on the right’—cries the mild Master, in the act of swattering through a miry pool.
† b. transf. To ‘flutter.’ Obs. rare.
1676. Row, Contn. Blair’s Autobiog., iii. (1848), 122. Out of the dreary vale of tears My soul hath swattered out.
1843. Whistle-binkie (1890), II. 43. The blude a swatert through my hert.
2. To fritter away (as time, money).
1690. C. Nesse, Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test., I. 78. Such as swatter away all their youth-time … in ways of both vanity and villany.
1790. Grose, Provinc. Gloss. (ed. 2), Swatter, to scatter or waste. He swattered away all his money. North.
1905. 19th Cent., Sept., 404. Proof that … it [sc. the poor rate] does not go to the poor, but is just ‘swattered away.’
