a. [Of Scandinavian origin: cf. obs. Da. sveibaget, also Da. sveirygget, † svegrygget, Sw. dial. svegryggad, in the same sense.] Of an animal, esp. a horse: Having a downward curvature of the spinal column; strained in the back, as by overwork. Also transf.
1680. Lond. Gaz., No. 1561/4. An old White Nag…, sway Back’d.
1876. Lanier, Poems, Clover, 25. Dick … upbraids The sway-back’d roan.
1880. ‘Mark Twain,’ Tramp Abr., I. 257. These rambling, swaybacked tunnels.
1884. Bath Chron., 12 June, 6/6. In Kent there is a large proportion of sway-backed lambs among the flocks.
So Sway-back a.; also as sb. = sway-backed condition (Dorland, Med. Dict.).
1887. T. N. Page, Ole Virginia (1893), 118. A man riding a sway-back sorrel horse.
