Also 7 swype. [app. local variant of SWAPE sb. or SWEEP sb.] A contrivance of the form of a lever for raising a weight, esp. for raising water; = SWEEP sb. 23, 24, 25. (Cf. SWAFE sb. 3, SWAPE sb. 3, SWIP sb.2)
1600. Holland, Livy, XXIV. xxxiv. 533. He devised a crane or swipe to be planted aloft upon the wals, having at the one end, which hung over the sea, a drag or grappling hooke of yron like an hand,… which tooke hold upon the proo of a gallie, [etc.].
1611. Cotgr., Bascule, a swipe, scoope, or put-gally to draw vp water withall.
1661. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 2), Swepe or Swipe [ed. 1656 Sweep], was an instrument of war; like that which Brewers use with cross beams to draw water.
1699. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. xvi. 143. Ἀντλίον, ἄντλον, in Latin, haustrum, tolleno, or tollena, &c. a Swipe, or Engine to draw up Water.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Swipe, an Engine to draw up Water; also another sort to throw Granadoes.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Swipe, the lever or handle of a pump.
1852. Burn, Naval & Milit. Dict. (1863), s.v., Swipe or bar of a sluice-gate with a counter-poise.
1905. Sat. Rev., 15 July, 82/2. The ‘swipe’ of British brickfields.
b. attrib.: swipe-beam, the counterpoise lever of a drawbridge.
