dial. Also swilley. [app. var. of SWELLY sb.]
1. A detached portion of a coal-seam; also, a local thickening of a coal-seam: = SWELLY sb.
1836. T. Thomson, Min. Geol., etc. ii. 162. These little basins are provincially called swilleys. They seldom exceed a mile or a mile and a half in length, and none of them has been worked.
2. An eddy or whirlpool; also in comb. swilly-hole (see quot.).
1890. W. A. Wallace, Only a Sister, 95. I’d sooner lig like an eel in a swilly hole all my days. Note, A swilly hole = a pool at the bend of a stream.
3. ‘A hollow place;… a gutter washed out of the soil’ (E.D.D.).
1899. Evesham Jrnl., March, 25 (E.D.D.). The drainage was what was locally known as discharging into ‘swilleys.’
