Forms: 6 swoupe, 6–7 swoope, 7 swoup, 7– swoop; also 6 sooup, 6–7 soup, 7 soupe, soop(e. [app. a dialectal development of OE. swápan, SWOPE v.1, prob. influenced by Sc. and north. dial. SOOP v. (a. ON. sópa).]
† 1. intr. To move or walk in a stately manner, as with trailing garments; to sweep along. Also with it. Obs.
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., I. ii. B j b. He swings and swoupes from streete to streete, with gowne that sweepes the grounde.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., I. iii. 23. Soouping in side robes of Royalty.
1598. Marston, Sat., III. viii. O now me thinks I heare swart Martins cry, Souping along in warres fain’d maskerie.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., V. i. 1965. England affordes those glorious vagabonds,… Coursers to ride on … Sooping it in their glaring Satten Sutes.
1617. Bp. Hall, Quo Vadis? xii. The persecutors of S. Thomas of Canterbury, whose posteritie (if we believe … Degrassalius) are borne with long and hairie tails souping after them.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxviii. 229. And in her winding Banks along my bosome led, As shee goes swooping by.
† 2. trans. To sweep up, away, off, etc.; to remove forcibly from its position or out of existence.
1600. Holland, Livy, V. xiii. 189. The forraiers … encountred the residue … of this battaile … and swoopt them up cleane. Ibid. (1609), Amm. Marcell., XVI. iv. 61. A rich patrimonie … he swoopt away.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, V. iii. Like a wild overflow, that soops before him A golden Stack, and with it shakes down Bridges.
1615. T. Adams, White Devil, 26. A starre placed high in the orbe of the Church, thogh swooped downe with the Dragons taile because not fixed.
1623. T. Godwin, Rom. Antiq., II. III. xiii. (1658), 117. Look who threw an Ace and Sice together, for every Dye he staked and laid to stake a Denere; which he took up and swooped all clean.
1625. Lisle, Du Bartas, Noe, 24. Make haste and soop the wat’r away That hides the land from Heav’n.
1634. Ford, Perkin Warbeck, I. ii. B iij b. So Pasture fields Neighbouring too neere the Ocean, are soopd vp And knowne no more.
c. 1685. Lintoun Green (1817), 165. They Donald gar’d their victuals dress, Knives clean,… And swoop dirt pulverized Ilk morning gray.
1791. Learmont, Poems, 180. Doctors, wi’ hocus-pocus faith Gie poison, an’ swoop aff your waith.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d, I. (1827), 6. The whirlwind’s blast, That … swoops the haycocks aff the lea.
1888. Child, Ballads, III. 103/1. Robin swoops off Red Roger’s head.
† b. To utter forcibly. Obs. rare.
1605. Camden, Rem., Languages, 23. The Northerne Nations of the world, who are noted to soupe their words out of the throat with fat and full spirits.
† c. To drink off or swallow down quickly the contents of; = SWEEP v. 6 b. Obs.
1648. G. Daniel, Eclog, iii. 138. With bended knee, Swoope of a vessel bigger then all three.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. vi. 103. A thorough … draining, and swooping the whole vessell.
† 3. To pounce upon, as a bird of prey; to seize, catch up with a sweeping movement. Also fig.
1638. Wilkins, New World, I. xiv. (1640), 238. If there bee such a great Ruck in Madagascar … which can soope up a horse and his rider, or an elephant, as our kites doe a mouse.
1649. G. Daniel, Triarch., Hen. V., lxviii. As ore a Hill, Where lanke-wing’d Puttocks hope to catch their Prey They hover, till it Stirre, and Swoop’t away. Ibid. (a. 1653), Idyll., iv. 32. Though Tyranny, (big-Swolne, in all formes, Vulture or Moll) doe Swoop, or hunt out wormes.
1661. Glanvill, Van. Dogm., 247. The Physitian looks with another Eye on the Medicinal hearb, then the grazing Oxe, which swoops it in with the common grass.
1670. Dryden, 1st Pt. Conq. Granada, I. i. Till now at last you came to swoop it all.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 35. He [sc. the pope] would have swoop’d up the Patriarchate of Lambeth to his Mornings-draught, like an egg in Muscadine.
1678. Otway, Friendship in F., V. Thou shalt every morning swoop the Exchange in triumph to see what gaudy bauble thou canst first grow fond of.
1688. Bunyan, Jerus. Sinner Saved (1886), 78. Why the text swoops you all…. It has a particular message to the biggest sinner. I say, it swoops you all.
1818. Milman, Samor, IV. 681. To grapple with these vultures, whose broad vans … would swoop us.
1822. Byron, Werner, III. i. 157. ’Tis but a snare he winds about us both, To swoop the sire and son at once.
4. intr. To make a rapid sweeping descent through the air upon its prey, as a bird.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. xiii. 222. Like a hawk in a cage, who hears his late companions swooping and screaming in wild liberty above him.
1852. R. F. Burton, Falconry Valley Indus, vii. 68. Jerking the prey out of her reach as she swoops at it.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xxvii. 454. Seagulls were swooping down and around the tall masts.
1894. Weyman, Under Red Robe, vii. (1897), 178. The frogs croaked in the pool and a bat swooped round us in circles.
5. To come down upon suddenly with a sweeping movement, esp. with the intention of seizing, as a body of troops.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xiii. Those Carmelites may swoop upon us all of a sudden, before we can help ourselves.
1859. Masson, Brit. Novelists, i. 71. Turning over the leaves of the large folio, and swooping down on the text here and there.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. iii. 30. At other times a breeze would swoop down upon us.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, I. VIII. vii. 95. Descending from Pamplona, he could swoop on either Zaragoza or Valladolid.
1874. Burnand, My Time, xv. 130. She swooped down before the fire.
1884. Mahaffy, in Contemp. Rev., July, 89. The wild mountaineers, who used to swoop down on the rich trading cities of the coast.
Hence Swooper, a person or thing that swoops.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems, The Diver. What in Charybdis’s caverns dwells No chronicle … tells;… the shattered masts and the drifting keel Alone tell the tale of the swooper’s prey.
1880. Libr. Univ. Knowl. (N. Y.), X. 496. Classification [of birds] based on Cuvier [etc.]…. 1. Robbers. a. Swoopers. Eagles, hawks, vultures. b. Stealers.
