[subst. use of SWIFT a.]
I. 1. The common newt or eft. Now only dial.
b. A name for several swift-running small lizards, as the N. American fence-lizard, Sceloporus undulatus.
1530. Palsgr., 278/2. Swyfte, worme, lesarde.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 173. Venomous beastes, and Wormes, as Ranny, Tode, Eddy, Snack, swift.
1606. N. B[axter], Sydney’s Ourania, G 3. The Neught, the Swift, lurking in the Roade.
1650. W. D., trans. Comenius’ Gate Lat. Unl., § 215. The lizzard, the evet, the swift … walk on their feet.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 26. Lacerta Stellio … the Swift.
1848. Zoologist, VI. 2186. If you were to ask here [sc. in Norfolk] whether there were any swifts about, you would be told ‘Yes, plenty in the clay-pits’: the only creature known by that name is the water-eft.
1889. [see fence-lizard s.v. FENCE sb. 11].
2. A bird of the family Cypselidæ, comprising numerous and widely distributed species, outwardly resembling swallows (cf. SWALLOW sb.1 2), and noted for their swiftness of flight; esp. the common swift, Cypselus apus, a summer visitant to the British Isles and Europe generally.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 90. Hirundo Apos Major … the Horse-Marten, or Swift.
a. 1672. Willughby, Ornith. (1678), 214. The black Martin or Swift. Hirundo apus.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 547. Some Swifts, the Gyants of the Swallow kind.
1769. G. White, Selborne, To Pennant, 8 Dec. The invariable early retreat of the Hirundo apus, or swift, so many weeks before its congeners.
1866. Darwin, Orig. Spec., vii. (ed. 4), 281. One of the swifts of North America makes its nest … of sticks agglutinated with saliva.
1870. Nicholson, Man. Zool. (1875), 508. In the Swifts … all four toes are present, but they are all turned forwards.
b. Name for a breed of domestic pigeons having some resemblance to swifts. Also swift pigeon.
1879. L. Wright, Pigeon Keeper, 197. Swifts are named from the great resemblance of their long flights and tails to the Martin and Swallow tribe of birds.
1881. Lyell, Pigeons, 113. The Swift pigeon … is of Eastern origin.
† 3. A proper name for a swift-running hound.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., II. v. 904. The Buck broke gallantly: my great Swift being disaduantaged in his slip was at the first behinde.
1677. Coles, Argus … swift, a dogs name, Ulysses’s dogs name.
4. Collectors’ name for moths of the genus Hepialus or family Hepialidæ, distinguished by their rapid flight. Also swift moth.
1819. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 245. Hepialus Humuli (ghost swift). Hep. Mappa (map-winged swift). Hep. Hectus (golden swift).
1870. Eng. Mech., 21 Jan., 449/3. The subterranean Caterpillars of the Swift Moths.
II. 5. A light kind of reel, usually of adjustable diameter, upon which a skein of silk, yarn, etc., is placed in order to be wound off. See also quot. 1878.
1564. Inv., in Noake, Worcestershire Relics (1877), 13. In the weaving shoppe … ij pare of shuttels a swiste [sic] and a knave to the quiltourne.
1795. W. Hutton, Hist. Derby, 208. The machine continually turns a round bobbin, or small block of wood, which draws the thread from the slip, while expanded upon a swift, suspended on a centre. The moment the thread breaks, the swift stops.
1805. Godwin, Fleetwood, xi. The reels, or, as the English manufacturers call them, swifts, which received the silk, as it was devolved from certain bobbins [sic].
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 395. Each of the skeins is extended upon a slight reel called a swift … composed of four small rods, fixed into an axis, and small bands of string are stretched between the arms to receive the skein,… the bands admit of sliding to a greater or less distance from the centre, so as to increase the effective diameter of the reel, according to the size of the skein.
1876. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, 176. The galvanized iron wire is placed on a simple loose wheel, or ‘swift.’
1878. Cumbld. Gloss., Garn winnels, Swifts, a wooden cross from which yarn is wound off.
1884. W. S. B. McLaren, Spinning (ed. 2), 182. The only objection to this machine is the danger to the workers, for the swift is not stopped with each change of wool.
b. A cylinder in a carding-machine.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 765. The cards employed for tow are machines of considerable weight and importance, the main cylinder, or, as it is sometimes called, ‘swift,’ being from 4 to 5 feet diameter.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 659/1. The angle stripper passes the wool from the doffer to the next cylinder, which is called a ‘swift.’
† 6. A rapid current; a rapid. Obs. rare.
1661. Walton, Angler, xiv. 193. He [sc. the Barbel] is able to live in the strongest swifts of the Water.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 5026/6. Another we sunk, who in the swift of the Sea turn’d bottom up.
7. The sail of a windmill. dial.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., III. 125. By working the bellows with swifts like those of a mill.
1796. Lond. Chron., 21 Jan., 72. As a boy was at play near the windmill belonging to Rye,… the swifts struck him on the head.
8. Printers’ slang. A quick or expeditious typesetter.
1841. Savage, Dict. Print., 229. Compositors who are expeditious workmen are styled Fire Eaters, and also Swifts.
1896. Indianapolis Typogr. Jrnl., 16 Nov., 405. Owing to the linotype machines, several ‘swifts’ were thrown out of employment.
III. 9. attrib. and Comb., as swift-like adj. or adv.; swift moth, = 4; swift pigeon, = 2 b; swift reel, = 5; swift-shrike, a bird of the genus Ocypterus.
1839. Bailey, Festus, 144. I was at home in Heaven: *Swift-like I lived above.
1868. Rep. U. S. Commiss. Agric. (1869), 288. The skeins are slipped upon octagonal, wicker *‘swift’ reels.
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 416/1. The *swift shrikes (Ocypterus, Cuv.), so named from their very long wings.
