swingle

¹ American  

[swing-guhl] / ˈswɪŋ gəl /

noun

1. a swipple.

2. a wooden instrument shaped like a large knife, for beating flax or hemp and scraping from it the woody or coarse portions.

---

verb (used with object)

swingled, swingling

1. to clean (flax or hemp) by beating and scraping with a swingle.

swingle ² American  

[swing-guhl] / ˈswɪŋ gəl /

noun

Slang.

1. a single person who is highly active socially and sexually; an unmarried person who swings.

---

swingle British  

/ ˈswɪŋɡəl /

noun

1. a flat-bladed wooden instrument used for beating and scraping flax or hemp to remove coarse matter from it

---

verb

1. (tr) to use a swingle on

Other Word Forms

• unswingled adjective

Etymology

Origin of swingle¹

1275–1325; Middle English swingel, Old English swingell rod (cognate with Middle Dutch swinghel ), equivalent to swing- ( swing ¹ ) + -el instrumental suffix ( -le )

Origin of swingle²

1965–70, blend of swing ¹ (in the slang sense “to engage freely and often in sexual activity”) and single

Example Sentences

The expense is sixteen pounds currency, or about twelve sterling for a first-rate article, with swingle bars, or, as they are always called here, "whipple-trees," to attach the traces to.

From Canada and the Canadians, Vol. 2 by Bonnycastle, Richard Henry

The younger slaves had to "swingle it" with a wooden instrument, somewhat like a sword, about two feet long, and called a swingler.

From Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Kentucky Narratives by Work Projects Administration

Two stout sticks, the handstaff and the swingle, attached to each other by a strong band of gut, constitute its simple mechanism.

From A Cotswold Village by Gibbs, J. Arthur

Oates fetched him when he had quieted down, and we found that nothing had been hurt or broken but the swingle tree.

From Scott's Last Expedition Volume I by Scott, Robert Falcon

The wheat having been strewn on the barn floor, the labourer held the handstaff in both hands, swung it over his head, and brought the swingle down horizontally on to the heads of ripe corn.

From A Cotswold Village by Gibbs, J. Arthur