Now dial. Forms: 1 swælan, 3 swælen, pa. t. swelde, 3–4 swale, 4 swayle, (also 9) swele, 4, 7–9 swaile, 5 sweile, sweyle, 6–7 sweale, 7–9 swail, 8–9 sweel, (9 squail, zwele, zweel, etc.), 6– sweal, 7– swale. [OE. swǽlan wk. trans. to burn, related to OE. swelan str. intr. to burn (which may be in part also the source of this word) = (M)LG. swelen to singe, wither (of grass), make hay, etc. (whence G. schwelen, schwälen to burn slowly without flame, NFris. swîal to singe, EFris. swêl to glow), ON. svæla to smoke out, svæla thick mist or smoke, f. Teut. root swel- to be subjected to heat or slow burning (cf. OHG. suilizôn to burn slowly).
Other grades of the root are represented by OE. swol, swolig (cf. SOOLY), swoloþ burning, heat, LG. swôl, swûl, swôlig, swûlig oppressively hot, sultry (whence G. schwül, earlier † schwul), Du. zwoel sultry.
Cognates outside Teut. are recognized in Lith. svìlti to scorch, svilus glowing, svilmis smell of burning, Lett. swelt to scorch.]
1. trans. To consume with fire, burn; to set fire to (e.g., gorse, etc., soot in a chimney); to singe, scorch; locally, to singe (a hog), (in Ireland) to roast (a sheep) whole in its skin.
[Beowulf, 3011 (Gr.). Gledum beswæled.]
c. 1000. Lambeth Ps. xxv[i]. 2. Onæl … vel swæl vel bærn lendenu … mine.
c. 1205. Lay., 6147. Berneð heore halles … & swaleð heore bures. Ibid. (c. 1275), 25594. Þo com þar … a bernen[d]e drake, borwes he swelde.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 325. He … sweled of his berd heer with a firy cole. Ibid., VIII. 143. He … schewed hym his heed þat was i-sweled and i-scalded.
c. 1400. Beryn, 2349. For to swele his vlyes He stert in-to the bern & aftir stre he hies.
c. 1410. Lanterne of Liȝt, ix. 78. Þat lust of þe fleische mai be sweilid from coueiting of yuel [orig. ut conbusta caro non concupiscat malum].
1573. Twyne, Æneid., XII. Ll 4. His huge beard brent a light, And swealed caused a stinke.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iv. 253. Summers-guide, the Crab comes … To bring us yearly in his starry shell, Many long dayes the shaggie Earth to swele.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1634), 36. If you must use many [hives]; then, having wet the skirts with a cloth, singe or sweal the inside.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 322. To Sweal a Hog, to singe a Hog.
1795. Trans. Soc. Arts, XIII. 183. The gorse … is used for sweeling ships [i.e., applying a torch to the greased and tarred bottom that the fat, etc., may penetrate].
1800. Hurdis, Fav. Village, 52. To see the thunder-bolt with fiery arm Arrest the mountain top and sweal his brow.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 310. In order to have good bacon the hair should be sweeled off—not scalded.
1883. Almondbury & Huddersfield Gloss., Sweal, to burn the soot out of the chimney.
1883. Standard, 12 Sept., 2/2. ‘Sweel’ is an odd Sussex word, meaning to singe linen.
1917. Daily News, 22 Dec., 12/1. Strong overgrown heather which … would have to be torched or ‘swaled’ before young plants … could take possession of that area.
b. To cause (grass, etc.) to dry or wither.
1796. Pegge, Derbicisms (E.D.S.), s.v., The wind sweals the grass; not only checks its growth, but cuts off and consumes its blade.
1881. Leicester. Gloss., s.v., ‘It’—the hay—‘is swaled enow, an’ way’ll hack it in.’
2. intr. To burn with fire, or as a fire; to be consumed with fire; to be scorched; to be burning hot.
[Beowulf, 2713 (Gr.). Sio wund ongon … swelan and swellan.
a. 900. Cynewulf, Crist, 987 (Gr.). On fyrbaðe swelað sæfiscas.]
c. 1205. Lay., 16219. Þe castel gon to bernen, bures þer swælden [MS. slælden].
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xiii. 6. Sothely the sunne sprung vp, thei swaliden [gloss or brenden for hete]. Ibid., Rev. xvi. 9. Men swayleden [1388 swaliden; Vulg. æstuaverunt] with greet heete. Ibid. (1388), Jer. xx. 9. The word of the Lord was maad, as fier swalynge [1382 gretly hetende] in myn herte.
1811. Willan, in Archaeologia, XVII. 160. (W. Riding Words), Sweal, to blaze, to burn away rapidly.
1861. E. Brown, Seaman’s Narr., xxii. 251. The flesh swealed with the heat of the irons, and a blue steamy smoke arose.
1882. Lanc. Gloss., s.v., A fire or anything else is said to sweel when it burns fiercely.
3. Of a candle: To melt away; to gutter. Also said of the tallow or wax. Hence fig. to waste away.
1653. H. More, Conject. Cabbal. (1713), 80. That they can burn thus with their heads downwards, and not presently sweal out and be extinguished, as our ordinary Candles are.
1671. Skinner, Etymol., To Sweal away, eliquescere instar candelæ, vox agro Linc. usitatissima.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., v. Mind ye dinna let the candle sweal as ye gang alang the wainscot parlour.
1827. T. Wilson, Pitman’s Pay, II. iii. The unsnuff’d lights are now burnt low, And dimly in their sockets sweeling.
1858. Faber, Bartoli & Maffei’s Life Xavier, 396. The wax which had swealed from it [sc. a candle].
1870. Kingsley, At Last, viii. The soil is half pitch, half brown earth, among which the pitch sweals in and out, as tallow sweals from a candle.
1881. Pall Mall G., 9 March, 10. The candles they have to light them to their rooms are swaling.
1893. Wiltshire Gloss., Squail … (4) Of a candle, to gutter.
4. trans. To cause to waste away like a guttering candle. Chiefly fig.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., I. 298. Lest this sin of pride (as a thief in the candle) should swail out thy joy.
1662. Hibbert, Body Div., I. 144. An intemperate man is one that, like some candles, sweals away his life.
1673. True Worship of God, 65. The wasting and swealing out the Lights of the Church.
a. 1679. T. Goodwin, Unregenerate Man, XIII. ix. Immoderate sorrows swale our life.
1697. Congreve, Mourning Bride, III. vi. Our Hymeneal Torch … dashed with Rain from Eyes, and swail’d with Sighs.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. I. i. (1852), 275. Reckoning … the time not spent in study, for the most part sweeled away.
1862. [C. C. Robinson], Dial. Leeds, s.v., Mind an’ doan’t sweal t’cannel.
