Also 3 swel, 4 swele. [In sense 1 prob. repr. OE. ʓeswell (:—*gaswaljo-), corresp. to MLG. geswel(le, swel, swele, MDu. geswel, swel, sweel(e (Du. gezwel); in the other senses f. SWELL v., q.v.]
† 1. A morbid swelling. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 274. Auh drinc þeonne atterloðe, & drif þene swel [v.r. swalm] aȝeanward urommard þe heorte, þet is to siggen, þenc oðe attrie pinen þet God suffrede oðe rode & þe swell schal selten.
13[?]. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 1566. He … usede sinne sodomighte. So long he pleiede with yong man, A swele in his membres cam than.
2. The condition of being swollen, distended, or increased in bulk; swelling or protuberant form, bulge; concr. a protuberant part, protuberance.
In technical use spec., e.g., the enlargement near the muzzle of a gun, the enlarged and thickened part of a gun-stock, the entasis of a column.
1683. J. Reid, Scots Gard’ner (1907), 39. Grass, or brick-walkes may have, for thirty foot broad, six inches of swell.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., II. 20. The swell or belly of the shaft.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 45. Not being able to make their growing Progress, for want of Room in the Earth, for the Swell and Multiplicity of their several Stalks.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, III. 512. The [pigeons called] Crappers are valuable for their Swell.
1758. Reid, trans. Macquer’s Chym., I. 374. During the calcination of the Tin,… you perceive in several places a small swell of a certain matter which bursts.
1768. Woman of Honor, II. 201. I think I see the hardly suppressed swell of face of one of those immortal geniuses.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v. Secure arms!, Quit the butt with the left hand, and seize the firelock with it at the swell.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 94. When pregnancy takes place, and the uterus enlarges, the breasts exhibit a correspondent increase of swell.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 73. The irregular swells and hollows on the surface of a casting. Ibid., 195. This bore is a piece of strong iron, ten or twelve inches in length: near to each end there is a knob or swell of steel. Ibid. (1833), II. 204. The shanks consist of tubes of brass covering iron rods, and screwed together at the swells.
1846. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. xix. 327. There was a slight swell in his chest—the hysterica passio of poor Lear rose … in his throat.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xlv. Pitt looked down … at his legs, which had not … much more symmetry or swell than the lean Court sword which dangled by his side.
1849. Freeman, Archit., v. 88. Ornamental balusters with a single swell are found.
1876. Encycl. Brit., IV. 490/1. If a column be intended to have a swell in the middle.
b. fig. Increase in amount. rare. ? Obs.
1768. Woman of Honor, III. 227. His plan of concealing the enormous swell of his fortune.
1842. Alison, Hist. Europe, lxxviii. X. 1009. The augmentation of wealth, the swell of pauperism.
3. a. The rising or heaving of the sea or other body of water in a succession of long rolling waves, as after a storm; concr. such a wave, or, more usually, such waves collectively. (See also GROUND-SWELL.)
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. ii. 49. The Swannes downe feather That stands vpon the Swell at the full of Tide, And neither way inclines.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 326. Fenced nowhere from the least surge or swell of the water.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xlii. 114. There being nothing to keep the great Swell of rolling Seas off them.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. iii. 139. A most excellent harbour … for its security against all winds and swells.
1805. H. K. White, Lett., Poems (1837), 266. Some tremendous swells which we weathered admirably.
1808. Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), 21. My boat ploughed the swells, sometimes almost bow under.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Cinnamon & Pearls, i. 13. Old Gomgode’s flat-bottomed fishing boat … was pitching in the rising swell.
1865. Parkman, Huguenots in Florida, ii. Their water-casks … rocking on the long swells of subsiding gales.
fig. 1798. Landor, Gebir, IV. 33. Such ebbs of doubt, and swells of jealousy.
1871. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., Ser. I. (1878), 175. The full swell and tide and energy of genius.
b. The rising of a river above its ordinary level. ? Obs.
1758. Ann. Reg., Hist. War, 46/2. The swell of the river had rendered all relief impossible. Ibid. (1760), 38/2. Notwithstanding … the great swell of the waters … he passed the Rhine. Ibid. (1769), 25/2. A sudden and extraordinary swell of the … Niester … totally destroyed the bridge.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 176. Rapids; which … with a swell of two or three feet, become very passable for boats.
1812. Brackenridge, Views Louisiana (1814), 48. The annual swell, which is early in the spring of the year, raises the water fifty or sixty feet.
4. A piece of land rising gradually and evenly above the general level; a hill, eminence, or upland with a smooth rounded outline and broad in proportion to its height; a rising ground.
Orig. with qualifying phr., e.g., swell of ground, which is still usually felt to be necessary by English writers; the absol. use is specially American.
1764. Dodsley, Leasowes, in Shenstone’s Wks. (1777), II. 308. A swell of waste furzy land, diversified with a cottage, and a road.
1792. Young, Trav. France (1889), 20. The swells margined with wood.
1808. Pike, Sources Mississ., II. (1810), 135. The prairie rising and falling in regular swells, as far as the sight can extend.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxvii. An uninterrupted swell of moorland.
1825. Longf., Burial Minnisink, 1. On sunny slope and beechen swell.
1869. Parkman, Disc. Gt. West, xxv. 337. The grassy swells were spangled with the bright flowers for which Texas is renowned.
1908. Rider Haggard, Ghost Kings, v. 55. Following a game-path through the dew-drenched grass which grew upon the swells and valleys of the veld.
b. Coal-mining. (See quots.)
1855. J. Phillips, Man. Geol., 193. [The seam] is … cut into ‘swills’ [sic] or ‘horse backs,’ which rise up from the floor.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol. (1885), 467. The stratification of the later accumulation will end off abruptly against the flanks of the older ridge, which will appear to rise up through the overlying bed. Appearances of this kind are not uncommon in coal-fields, where they are known to the miners as ‘rolls,’ ‘swells,’ or ‘horses’ backs.’
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, Swell, a kind of fault. See Horses. Ibid., Horses or Horsebacks, natural channels cut, or washed away by water, in a coal seam, and filled up with shale and sandstone.
5. Of sound, esp. musical sound: Gradual increase in loudness or force; hence, a sound or succession of sounds gradually increasing in volume, or coming upon the ear more and more clearly.
1803. Scott, Gray Brother, xxiii. The heavy knell, the choir’s faint swell, Came slowly down the wind.
1822. Q. Mus. Mag., IV. 35. The swell, or gradual increase of sound, is produced by opening the door of the box in which this part of the organ is inclosed.
1833. Tennyson, May Queen, III. viii. And up the valley came a swell of music on the wind.
1839. Moore, Alciphron, iii. 121. There came A swell of harmony as grand As e’er was born of voice and hand.
1848–9. [see FLAM sb.2].
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, VI. xii. As Philip lay alone the soar and swell of the psalm filled the room.
b. spec. in Mus. A gradual increase of force (crescendo) followed by a gradual decrease (diminuendo), in singing or playing; hence, a character composed of the crescendo and diminuendo marks together, denoting this: ＜ ＞.
1757. Foote, Author, Epil. Divine Mingotti! what a swell has she!
1833. J. Rush, Philos. Hum. Voice (ed. 2), 259. A gradual strengthening and subsequent reduction of the voice, similar to what is called a swell in the language of musical expression.
1848. Rimbault, First Bk. Piano., 65.
6. A contrivance for gradually varying the force of the tone in an organ or harmonium (also in the harpsichord and some early pianos), consisting of a shutter, a lid, or (now usually) a series of slats like those of a Venetian blind, which can be opened or shut at pleasure by means of a pedal or (in the harmonium) a knee-lever. Also short for swell-box, swell keyboard, or swell organ (see below).
Used attrib. in names of apparatus connected with or actuating the swell, as swell-coupler, keyboard, manual, pedal; swell-box, the box or chamber, containing a set of pipes or reeds, which is opened and closed by the swell in an organ or harmonium; swell organ, the set of pipes enclosed in this, forming one of the partial organs that make up a large organ.
1773. Barrington, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 27. The insipidity of the upper part of the flute stop of an organ, which hath not the modern improvement of a swell.
1774. Gillespy, in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Mus. (1871), 10. My new constructed principle of putting on the quills to strike the strings of a harpsichord with a peddle and swell.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus., s.v., A certain quantity of pipes inclosed in a large wooden case called the Swell Box.
1822. Q. Mus. Mag., IV. 35. Three … distinct sound-boards; the great organ, the choir organ, and the swell.
1865. Chambers’ Encycl., VII. 111/1. Above the choir-organ is the swell-organ, whose pipes are enclosed in a wooden box with a front of louvre-boards like venetian blinds.
1869. Eng. Mech., 31 Dec., 386/1. The swell box … covers the top of the reed chest or ‘pan.’
1875. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, s.v. Organ Construction § 17. In 1712, Abraham Jordan invented the ‘Nag’s-head swell,’ as it was afterwards termed. It consisted of an echo organ, having, instead of a fixed front, a moveable shutter working up and down in a window sash.
1881. W. E. Dickson, Organ-Build., xii. 151. To give promptness to the return of the swell-pedal … by attaching a strong spiral spring to the pedal. Ibid., 155. The simplest form of swell-coupler.
1883. A. J. Hipkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., III. 489. The Potsdam harpsichords were made with Shudi’s Venetian Swell.
1889. Stainer, ibid., IV. 8. The early swell-organs were of very limited compass…. For many years the compass did not extend below tenor C…; but in all instruments with any pretension to completeness the Swell manual is made to CC, coextensive with the Great and Choir.
7. A lever in a loom (see quot.).
1894. T. W. Fox, Mech. Weaving, xiii. 318. All looms are provided with curved levers called swells, which … serve the twofold purpose of protecting warp from being broken when a shuttle is in the shed, and also of stopping a shuttle from rebounding after entering a box.
8. The action or condition of swelling, in fig. senses. a. Of a feeling, emotion, etc. (cf. SWELL v. 7). Now rare or Obs.
1702. Steele, Funeral, IV. i. 51. It Moderates the Swell of Joy that I am in, to think of your Difficulties.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 246. The swell of pity, not to be confin’d Within the scanty limits of the mind.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Old Actors. Of all the actors who flourished in my time … Bensley had most of the swell of soul, was greatest in the delivery of heroic conceptions, the emotions consequent upon the presentment of a great idea to the fancy.
b. Proud or arrogant, or (in later use) pompous or pretentious air or behavior; (a piece of) swagger. To cut a swell, to ‘cut a dash,’ swagger. (Cf. SWELL v. 9, 10.) ? Obs.
1724. Briton, No. 28. 123. There is such a Swell and Insolence in most of those who can maintain any Degree of Mastery.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 179, ¶ 4. The softness of foppery, the swell of insolence, the liveliness of levity.
1800. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls., IV. 61. To see our young lords and our young gentlemen ‘cutting a swell,’ as the fashionable phrase is. Ibid. (1823), 232. The trio, having been to the play, agreed to call in at Smith’s, by way of a swell, to get sixpennyworth of oysters each.
1847. Bushnell, Chr. Nurt., II. i. (1861), 235. They practice it [sc. the child] in shows and swells and all the petty airs of foppery and brave assumption.
† c. Turgid or inflated style of langunge. Obs.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VII. 595. Pride, like the Delphic priestess, with a swell, Rav’d nonsense, destin’d to be future sense.
1783. Blair, Rhet., xiii. I. 264. Sentences constructed with the Ciceronian fulness and swell.
1843. Blackw. Mag., LIV. 62. The air of pretence, the craving after effect, the swell.
9. colloq., orig. slang. A fashionably or stylishly dressed person; hence, a person of good social position, a highly distinguished person.
[1804. Times, 25 Feb. A number of young gentlemen, on the King’s establishment, have lately been dismissed on account of their having formed an expensive club, under the title of the Swell!]
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, Cadge the swells, beg of the gentlemen.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Swell, a gentleman; but any well-dressed person is emphatically termed a swell, or a rank swell.
1819. Blackw. Mag., IV. 566. The third was one than whom no heavier swell Thy groaning pavement, Street of Princes, vext.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xviii. I never was a gentleman—only a swell.
1838. J. Blackwood, in Mrs. G. Porter, Ann. Publishing Ho. (1898), III. 11. The Baron is a most capital fellow, and a very big swell; he is chamberlain to the King of Prussia.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., i. Pictures of old swells, bishops and lords chiefly.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Valerie’s Fate, i. The girls were no end of swells, such lovely sable trimmings to their jackets!
1892. Law Times, XCIII. 459/2. The plaintiff stated that the defendant was one of the greatest swells in the City … and had often readily paid £20 or £30.
b. transf. One who is distinguished or eminent in achievement; one who is very clever or good at something.
1816. Moore, Epist. fr. Tom Crib to Big Ben, 23. Having floor’d, by good luck, the first swell of the age, Having conquer’d the prime one, that mill’d us all round.
1846. De Quincey, Syst. Heavens, Wks. 1862, III. 171. To insinuate the possibility of an error against so great a swell as Immanuel Kant.
1879. E. K. Bates, Egypt. Bonds, I. viii. 180. I know you are a swell at that sort of thing.
1886. ‘Ouida,’ House Party, v. (1887), 82. Russians are tremendous swells at palaver,… gammon you no end.
