[f. SWING- + ROPE sb.]
1. Naut. † a. ? = SHEET sb.2 1. Obs. b. A small rope by which a boat ‘swings’ (SWING v.1 11).
1336. Roll ‘W.N.’ 579, in Nicolas, Hist. Royal Navy (1847), II. 471. [For skin (‘pelle’) bought of divers persons to make two] swengeropes [therewith, 2s.]
1844. in W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scot. (1855), 323. The tie of the last net is … fixed to the swing-rope, a small hawser attached to the stern, and the boat rides to her drift as if at anchor.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 252/2. If there is a great deal of wind more swing-rope is allowed, so that the nets may not be dragged through the water.
2. A rope for a swing (SWING sb.2 11).
1815. Sporting Mag., XLV. 153. Good swing ropes and jump cords.
