Forms: 1 swillan (suillan), swilian (swylian), 3–4 swyle, 4 swile, 6 swyll, swil, Sc. sweill, 7 swille, 6– swill. [OE. swillan, swilian, of which no certain cognates are known.]
1. trans. To wash or rinse out (a vessel or cavity), or, now usually, to cause water to flow freely upon (a surface, floor, etc.) in order to cleanse it; † formerly also in wider use, to wash, bathe, drench, soak.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), G 3. Gargarizet, gagul suille.
c. 1000. Lambeth Ps. vi. 7 [6]. Lauabo … lectum meum lacrimis meis, ic ðwea vel ic swiliʓe … min bed mid minum tearum.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 24. Seoh þurh linenne clað & swile mið þæt geagl.
a. 1300. Body & Soul, in Böddeker, Altengl. Dichtungen (1878), 239. Þe þridde day shal flowe a flod þat al þis world shal hyle; boþe heye & lowe, þe flume shal hit swyle.
c. 1300. Havelok, 919. Ful wel kan ich dishes swilen.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 5826. He meked hym self ouer skyle, Pottes and dysshes for to swele [v.r. swyle].
1530. Palsgr., 745/2. I swyll, I rynce or clense any maner vessell, je raince.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 24. With wyne theire venison was swyld.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. i. 14. A galled Rocke … Swill’d with the wild and wastfull Ocean.
1619. Drayton, Bar. Wars, II. xiv. The Siluer Trent … Which, with the store of liberall Brookes supplyde, Th’ insatiate Meads continually doth swill.
1638. Rider, Horace, Odes, iii. 12. He in Tiber’s streams hath swill’d His oyly shoulders.
1647. C. Harvey, Schola Cordis (1778), 119. Swelter’d and swill’d in sweat.
1801. trans. Gabrielli’s Myst. Husb., III. 77. There, slip these on,… and I will swill out your other stockings in the morning.
1802. Beddoes, Hygëia, VIII. 19. The patient had carefully swilled out her stomach with water.
1842. T. Martin, in Fraser’s Mag., Dec., 652/2. Ducking and diving into the basin-stand, and swilling his face and neck with oceans of water.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 69. The dairy, which has to be constantly ‘swilled’ out and mopped clean.
absol. 1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Floss, III. vi. Kezia, the good-hearted, bad-tempered housemaid,… had begun to scrub and swill.
b. To stir (something) about in a vessel of liquid; to shake or stir (liquid) in a vessel by moving the vessel about.
1580. Frampton, Joyful News, Two Med. agst. Venome, 138. It is good to have a peece of a right Unicornes horne in a smal cheyne of golde, that it may bee swilled continually in the water that shall bee dronke.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, I. xii. 59. They swill the vrine round about the basen.
c. 1650. K. Arthur & K. Cornwall, 278, in Hales & Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 73. Then Sir Tristeram tooke powder forth of that box, & blent it with warme sweet milke; & there put it vnto that horne, & swilled it about in that ilke.
c. To carry by a current of water, to wash down, against something, etc. Also, to pour or carry (liquid) freely down.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 307. Bloud, tears, bowrs, towrs; she spils, swils, burns, and razes.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., III. xx. The worst … distilling To divers pipes, the pale cold humour swilling, Runs down to th’ Urine-lake.
1850. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XI. I. 155. The first rains … swill the soil into the rock beneath.
1902. Daily Chron., 15 Sept., 6/4. He clutched at everything he could feel. He was ‘swilled’ against a post.
2. intr. To move or dash about, as liquid shaken in a vessel; to flow freely or forcibly; to flow or spread over a surface.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, Notes Psychath., Wks. (Grosart), 152/1. The acceleration or retardation of the motion of the Earth will make the sea fluctuate or swill, like water in a shaken vessel. Ibid. (1659), Immort. Soul, III. xiii. § 6. 465. The Spirit of Nature in some regards leaves the motion of Matter to the pure laws of Mechanicks, but within other bounds checks it, whence it is that the Water does not swill out of the Moon.
1884. R. Paton, Scott. Church, vii. 62. Than if their heads were channels for any rubbish to swill through that happened to be in the way.
1895. G. Parker, Adventurer of North, 183. The river went swishing, swilling past.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, Rhyme of 3 Sealers, 119. O rainbow-gay the red pools lay that swilled and spilled and spread.
3. To drink freely, greedily, or to excess, like hogs devouring ‘swill’ or ‘wash.’ a. trans. (Occas. with down, formerly also in.)
1561. Awdelay, Frat. Vacab. (1869), 13. A licoryce knaue that will swill his Maisters drink.
1563. Homilies, II. Agst. Gluttony, Eee ij b. He left not his banqueting, but in one night swilled in so much wyne, that he fell into a feuer.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 91. Their women swill Wine and Beere daily, and in great excesse.
1674. trans. Martiniere’s Voy. North. Countries, 32. They drank of our beer…, but not with the gust and delight they swill down their own.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 474, ¶ 6. I would be brisk in swilling Bumpers.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc., 391. Swilling down great Quantities of cold watery Liquors.
1808. Scott, Marm., I. xxii. Let Friar John … Roast hissing crabs, or fagons swill. Ibid. (1821), Kenilw., ii. These empty stoups,… which my nephew and his drunken comrades have swilled off.
1850. Dickens, Dav. Copp., xxvi. I sat swilling tea.
1853. Hawthorne, Tanglewood T., Circe’s Palace (1879), 138. How they swilled down the liquor.
transf. and fig. 1566. Studley, trans. Seneca’s Agamemnon, 2273. The sacred tombes and alter stones our blood haue dronke and swyld.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. i. 438. Those that the Sea hath swill’d.
1690. C. Nesse, Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test., I. 97. That bitter cup which … they should have been swilling and swallowing down for ever.
1744. Armstrong, Preserv. Health, IV. 168. in the tempting bowl Of poison’d nectar sweet oblivion swill.
1818. Shelley, Lines Euganean Hills, 223. That the brutal Celt may swill Drunken sleep with savage will.
b. intr. (esp. to tipple, booze).
c. 1530. [see SWILLING vbl. sb. 2].
a. 1583. Montgomerie, Flyting, 494 (Tullibard. MS.). Vnto þe cocatrice in ane creill they send it [sc. the crocodile]; quhair, sevin ȝeiris, it sowkit, sweillit, singit and sarie.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faustus, xiii. He would not banquet, and carowse, and swill Amongst the Students.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Bloody Brother, II. ii. Then let us swill boyes for our health, Who drinks well, loves the commonwealth.
1678. R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1702), 252. When he had Swill’d … to a Beastly Excess he was carry’d away … to bed.
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, III. v. Ye eat, and swill, and sleep, and gourmandise.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 266. To swill and swallow at a trough.
1845. Dickens, Chimes, ii. 60. Not that you should swill, and guzzle, and associate your enjoyments, brutally, with food.
1887. Jefferies, Amaryllis, vii. They went along … en route to swill and smoke and puff and guffaw somewhere else.
4. trans. To cause to drink freely; to supply with abundance or excess of liquor; to fill with drink; refl. to drink one’s fill. Const. with, † in.
1548. Elyot, Appotus, well wette with drynke, welle wasshed or swilled with drynke, almost drunke.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. (1879), 104. Wee must not swill and ingurgitate our stomacks so ful.
1648. Crashaw, Delights Muses, Muses Duel, 76. Sweet-lipp’d Angell-Imps, that swill their throats In creame of Morning Helicon.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 154, ¶ 13. Several Souls, who … flock about the Banks of the River Lethe, and swill themselves with the Waters of Oblivion.
1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., I. ii. I wonder … you will encourage that lad to swill his guts thus with such beastly lubberly liquor.
1772. Nugent, trans. Grosley’s Tour Lond., I. 81. Tied in a file to posts at the extremity of the grass-plat, they [sc. cows] swill passengers with their milk, which … is served … in little mugs.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, xi. Till they can show there’s something they love better than swilling themselves with ale.
b. To supply or feed (a hog) with swill.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 411. Hogs should be well swilled with wash before they are put up for fatting.
5. Comb. a, with adv., as † swill-down a., that swills down liquor, addicted to excessive drinking. b. with sb. in objective relation, as † swill-belly, a great drinker; so swill-bellied a.; SWILL-BOWL, swill-flagon, swill-pot, one who swills a bowl (flagon, pot), an excessive drinker, a toper.
1699. R. L’Estrange, Erasm. Colloq. (1725), 124. Their brawny, *swill-bellied monks.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Swill-belly, a great Drinker.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xxxi. 256. Such a *Swill-down Bouser.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xxiii. Out, thou eternal *swill-flagon!
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxxiii. That unworthy *Swill-pot Grangousier.
Hence Swilled ppl. a., filled with liquor, inebriated, drunken.
1634. Milton, Comus, 178. I should be loath To meet the rudenesse, and swill’d insolence Of such late Wassailers.
