Sc. and dial. Also 8–9 swidder (see Eng. Dial. Dict.). [f. SWITHER v.1]
1. A state of agitation or excitement; a flurry, fluster.
a. 1768. Gude Wallace, xvii., in Child, Ballads, VI. 268. The gude wife ran but, the gude man ran ben, They pat the house all in a swither.
1785. Burns, Death & Dr. Hornbook, vi. I there wi’ Something does forgather, That pat me in an eerie swither.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxxvi. She’s been in a swither about the jocolate this morning, and was like to hae toomed it a’ out into the slap-basin.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xix. 226. She told me … in what a swither she was in about her papa.
2. A state of perplexity, indecision, or hesitation; doubt, uncertainty.
1719. Ramsay, Epist. to Arbuckle, 3. [He] stands some time in jumbled swither, To ride in this road, or that ither.
1788. E. Picken, Poems, 93. Doun in the yird thou e’en maun lie, Without a swither.
1838. J. Struthers, Poetie Tales, 47. Nae swither checked his onward step.
1895. Crockett, Men of Moss-Hags, xxxv. 253. ‘Mean!’ said he, ‘mean——’ speaking vaguely as one in a swither.
