Forms: see prec. sb.; also 5 swyngill, (squyngyl), 8 dial. sungle. [a. MDu. swinghelen, f. swinghel SWINGLE sb.]
1. trans. To beat and scrape (flax or hemp) with a swingle, in order to cleanse it of the coarser particles; to scutch. Also absol.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 156. Estonger vostre leyn, to swingle the flax.
14[?]. Lat.-Eng. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 581. Excudio, to squyngyl.
c. 1462. Wright’s Chaste Wife, 389. ‘Good syres,’ sche seyd, ‘swyngylle on fast; For no þing that ye blynne.’ Ibid., 401. Þe stuard þat was so stowde, Was fayne to swyngelle þe scales owte.
c. 1480. Henryson, Mor. Fab., Swallow, etc., xxx. The carle pullit the lyne,… swyngillit it weill, and hekkillit in þe flet.
1590. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 61. Foure womene wch did brake hempe and swynglye.
1615. [see SWINGLETREE 1].
1711. S. Sewall, Diary, 15 Jan. It came by a man’s blowing out his pipe, who was swingling Flax.
1776. Pennsylvania Even. Post, 24 Sept., 478/2. Choice swingled Flax.
1794. Piper of Peebles, 6 (E.D.D.). Lint was beaten wi’a mell An’ ilk ane sungled to themsell.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., v. 150. Weeding, steeping, grassing, and swingling or cleaning the flax.
1883. Harper’s Mag., Aug., 390/1. I found a group of barc-armed women under the trees swingling flax.
2. To cut off the tops of (weeds) without uprooting. local. (Cf. SWINGE v.1 3.)
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia.
