swill

English

Etymology

From Middle English swilen (“to wash; swirl; wash away”), from Old English swillan, swilian (“to wash; wash down; swill; gargle”), from Proto-West Germanic *swilljan, from Proto-Germanic *swiljaną (“to gulp, swallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to drink, gulp, swallow”). Related to English swallow.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /swɪl/
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪl

Noun

swill (countable and uncountable, plural swills)

  1. (collective) A mixture of solid and liquid food scraps fed to pigs etc; especially kitchen waste for this purpose.
    Synonyms: hogwash, slops, pigswill
  2. (by extension) Any disgusting or distasteful liquid.
    I cannot believe anyone could drink this swill.
  3. (by extension, figurative) Anything disgusting or worthless.
    This new TV show is a worthless load of swill.
    • 2017 March 27, “The Observer view on triggering article 50”, in The Observer‎:
      They have helped foster a corrosive, mean-spirited, angry and divisive atmosphere that May and her lieutenants are too weak to challenge. Into this swill comes Leave financier-in-chief, Arron Banks, who last week announced he was setting up a “Patriotic Alliance” to attempt to unseat 100 Remain-supporting MPs.
  4. (informal) A large quantity of liquid drunk at one swallow.
    Synonym: swig
    He took a swill of his drink and tried to think of words.
  5. (informal) Inexpensive beer or alcohol.
    Coordinate terms: hooch, rotgut
  6. (Ultimate Frisbee) A badly-thrown pass.

Translations

Verb

swill (third-person singular simple present swills, present participle swilling, simple past and past participle swilled)

  1. (transitive) To drink (or, rarely, eat) greedily or to excess.
  2. (transitive) To wash (something) by flooding with water.
  3. (transitive) To move (a liquid or liquid-filled vessel) in a circular motion.
    • 1958, Muriel Spark, Robinson, New York: New Directions, 2003, Chapter 6, p. 69,
      Jimmie looked lovingly at the flask, smelt it, and then, placing it next his ear, swilled it round to hear the splash of liquor.
    • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 14, in The Line of Beauty, New York: Bloomsbury, OCLC 1036692193:
      He swilled round the whisky in his glass […]
  4. (intransitive, of a liquid) To move around or over a surface.
    • 1906, Perceval Gibbon, “The Coward” in Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases, New York: McClure, Phillips, pp. 222-223,
      […] before them, between the high banks of the Vaal, they saw only a world of brown water, streaked with white froth, hurling down upon them. It rose above the foot-board and swilled to the level of the seat.
    • 1959, Ezra Pound, “Canto 96” in The Cantos of Ezra Pound, New York: New Directions, 1986, p. 654,
      A flood of fads swilled over all Europe.
    • 2000, Hanif Kureishi, “Goodbye, Mother” in Granta 69, Spring 2000, p. 119,
      The smell, the internal workings of every human being, the shit, blood, mucus swilling in a bag of flesh, made him mad. He felt he was wearing the glasses the stage hypnotist had given people, but instead of seeing them naked, he saw their inner physiology, their turbulence, their death.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To inebriate; to fill with drink.
    • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837:
      […] I should be loath
      To meet the rudenesse, and swill’d insolence
      Of such late Wassailers;
      check it out online
    • 1858, “A Primary Election at Peter Cooper’s Funny Little Grocery-Groggery,” Stephen H. Branch’s Alligator, Volume I, No. 13, 17 July, 1858, p. 2,
      Have I not kept open house for three days and nights, and swilled yourself and comrades with liquor for a week, and haven’t you all been drunk at my expense for several days?
  6. (transitive) To feed swill to (pigs).
    • 1921, Nephi Anderson, Dorian, Salt Lake City, Chapter 8, p. 84,
      “Carlia, have you swilled the pigs?”

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