[f. SWEAL v. + -ING1.] Burning; singeing: for special uses see quots. and SWEAL v.
c. 1410. Lanterne of Liȝt, iii. 6. Euery proud soule … schal be in to sweyling [orig. erit in combustionem].
1549. Compl. Scot., ii. 24. I sal visee ȝou vitht dreddour, vitht fyir, ande vitht suellieg [sic].
1694. J. Houghton, Collect. Improv. Husb., No. 95, ¶ 2. Swealing of Sheep in Ireland.
1759. R. Forster, in J. Nichols, Collect. Hist. Berks (1783), 56. The singeing of a pig they call sweeling.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 1201. When cured as bacon, it is the practice in Kent to singe off the hairs, by making a straw fire round the hog, an operation which is termed swaling.
1892. Pall Mall G., 16 April, 7/2. The wanton practice of ‘swaling’ [sc. ‘firing the heather’ on Dartmoor].
1899. J. M. Falkner, Moonfleet vii. There is a swealing of the parchment under the hot wax.
1902. E. Phillpotts, River, 251. These spring fires, or ‘swaleings,’ had been deliberately lighted that furze and heather might perish, and the grasses, thus relieved, prosper for flocks and herds.
