[f. SWING v.1 + -ING1.] The action of SWING v.1
† 1. Beating, scourging. Obs.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 57. We shulen leden al þis leinten on festing … on smerte swinginge & on oðre swiche gode dedes.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxxi. 13. Eftere þe bridel comes þe swyngynge for to teme him þat is wilde.
2. Flourishing, waving about.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 12526. Hym-seluyn in the sea sonkyn belyue, Swalprit & swam with swyngyng of armys.
1897. [see SWINGER3 1].
3. Movement to and fro, as of a suspended body; oscillation, swaying, etc.: see the verb.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., VII. xxxiii. 48. It will strike what Hour of the Day or Night it is, and then leave off striking, and swinging also.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Cl., 26 June. I have suffered more from jolting and swinging than ever I felt in the whole course of my life, although the carriage is remarkably … well hung.
1771. Luckombe, Hist. Print., 331. A low man cannot pull the handle of the Bar at so great a force … as a tall man; but will require the swinging of his whole body backwards to add force to the Pull.
1816. Shelley, Mont Blanc, ii. Thy giant brood of pines … in whose devotion The chainless winds still come … their mighty swinging To hear.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, ix. No sound was heard, except the swinging of the great bell.
1867. Augusta Wilson, Vashti, xxxiii. The peculiar, free, childish swinging of the left arm.
(b) See SWING v.1 6 (b).
1793. Medical Spectator, II. No. 39. 242. A few days after this, came on the annual custom of swinging. Ibid., 246. Some who have got marks of the wounds made on their backs by the swinging-hooks.
1857. Lady Canning, in Hare, Story Two Noble Lives (1893), II. 284. Dr. Duff says the swinging festival went off very mildly this year.
b. The sport of riding in a swing. Also attrib.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 698. These swinging-games had origin all from hence [sc. Italy].
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 93. Their husbands are very glad to give them this kind of sport, and sometimes help them in their swinging.
1838. [see SWING v.1 7 b].
4. slang or colloq. Hanging. Also attrib.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Columpio, swinging in a halter.
1879. Browning, Ned Bratts, 95. I think he pulled a face, next Sessions’ swinging-time.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., II. xi. They [sc. gentlemen of fortune] risk swinging.
