swiple

English

Noun

swiple (plural swiples)

  1. Alternative form of swipple
    • 1851, "Flail", entry in Cuthbert William Johnson, The Farmer's and Planter's Encyclopaedia of Rural Affairs, Lippincott, page 482,
      It anciently was truly a whip, and sometimes had two or more lashes: the modern flail consists of the handle or handstaff, which the labourer holds in his hand, and uses as a lever, to raise up and bring down the swiple, or part which strikes the corn, and beats out the chaff and grain from the straw.
    • 1978, Donald Macdonald, Lewis: A history of the island, page 76,
      The flail consisted of two parts, a six foot wooden staff attached by a sheepskin thong to a four foot buailtean, swiple of wood, thick tarry cable, or dried tangle.
    • 2011, Craig Williamson (editor & translator), A Feast of Creatures: Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Songs, University of Pennsylvania Press, page 195,
      The two hard captives bound together as one punishing creature, wielded by a Welshwoman and slave, are probably the handle and swiple of a threshing flail.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for swiple in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

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