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swill

 [swil]   Origin

swill

   [swil]
noun
1.
liquid or partly liquid food for animals, especially kitchen refuse given to swine; hogwash.
2.
kitchen refuse in general; garbage.
3.
any liquid mess, waste, or refuse; slop.
4.
a deep draught of liquor.
5.
contemptibly worthless utterance or writing; drivel.
verb (used without object)
6.
to drink greedily or excessively.

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Swill is one of our favorite verbs.
So is bowdlerise. Does it mean:
to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.
to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.
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verb (used with object)
7.
to drink (something) greedily or to excess; guzzle.
8.
to feed (animals) with swill: to swill hogs.
9.
Chiefly British. to wash by rinsing or flooding with water.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English swilen (v.), Old English swilian, swillan

Related forms
swill·er, noun
un·swilled, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To swill
Collins
World English Dictionary
swill (swɪl)
 
—vb (often foll by out)
1.  to drink large quantities of (liquid, esp alcoholic drink); guzzle
2.  chiefly (Brit) to drench or rinse in large amounts of water
3.  (tr) to feed swill to (pigs, etc)
 
—n
4.  wet feed, esp for pigs, consisting of kitchen waste, skimmed milk, etc
5.  garbage or refuse, esp from a kitchen
6.  a deep draught of drink, esp beer
7.  any liquid mess
8.  the act of swilling
 
[Old English swilian to wash out]
 
'swiller
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

swill
O.E. swilian, swillan "to wash, gargle," with no certain cognates, but probably from P.Gmc. *sweljanan, related to the root of swallow (v.). Meaning "drink greedily" is from c.1530; the noun sense of "liquid kitchen refuse fed to pigs" is 1553, from the verb.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

swill definition


  1. n.
    liquor. : The swill they serve here is better than you can get elsewhere.
  2. n.
    a drink of liquor. : Here, you can have a little swill of mine.
  3. tv. & in.
    to drink liquor. : He swilled a whole case of beer yesterday. Isn't he joyful yet?
  4. n.
    any nasty food or drink. : Let's go over to the ptomaine-domain and get our evening swill.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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