swingle

1
[ swing-guhl ]

noun
  1. 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),swin·gled, swin·gling.
  1. to clean (flax or hemp) by beating and scraping with a swingle.

Origin of swingle

1
1275–1325; Middle English swingel,Old English swingell rod (cognate with Middle Dutch swinghel), equivalent to swing- (see swing1) + -el instrumental suffix (see -le)

Other words from swingle

  • un·swin·gled, adjective

Other definitions for swingle (2 of 2)

swingle2
[ swing-guhl ]

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

Origin of swingle

2
1965–70, Americanism; blend of swing1 (in the slang sense “to engage freely and often in sexual activity”) and single

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use swingle in a sentence

  • Plenty of skippers did business with Swingles simply because Jack was there.

    Command | William McFee
  • If he liked to leave, Archy hadn't any doubt he'd take a good half of Swingles' business with him.

    Command | William McFee

British Dictionary definitions for swingle

swingle

/ (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

Origin of swingle

1
Old English swingel stroke; related to Middle High German swüngel, Middle Dutch swinghel

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012