v. Obs. Also 4 swynde. [OE. swindan, pa. t. swand, swundon, pa. pple. -swunden. = OHG. suuintan, suindan, pa. t. suant, (MHG. swinden, occas. swinten, G. schwinden, schwand, geschwunden, whence Da. svinde), a formation with -nd- on the Teut. root swī- (cf. Icel. svía to abate), parallel to a formation with -n-, repr. by OHG. swînan (MHG. swînen, G. schweinen) of the same meaning, MLG. swînen to be slow, ON. svina to subside, and to a formation with -m-, repr. by SWIME and the related forms.] intr. To waste away, languish; to dwindle, decrease; to vanish, disappear. Hence † Swinden ppl. a., enfeebled, enervated (cf. ASWIND 2, FORSWOUNDEN).
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxv. (1899), 500. Ealle … oððe hefiʓe slæpe swundon, oððe to synnum wacedon.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Spelman) xxxviii. 15 [xxxix. 11]. Swindan ðu dydest … sawle his.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 57, in O. E. Hom., I. 163. Vre swinc and ure tilþe is ofte iwoned to swinden.
c. 1275. Lay., 23670. Þanne mai me singe Of one swindene kinge Þat his beot haueþ imaked And his cniht-sipe forsake.
13[?]. St. Erkenwolde, 342, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 274. Sodenly his swete chere swyndid & faylide.
a. 1327. Pol. Songs (Camden), 150. Thus me pileth the pore that is of lute pris: Nede in swot and in swynk swynde mot.
a. 1380. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxviii. 56. Heil lenere and louere of largenesse, Swete and swettest þat neuer may swynde.
