Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Swingle

Swin′gle (swĭn̲′g'l), v. i. [Freq. of swing.] 1. To dangle; to wave hanging. [Obs.] Johnson.

2. To swing for pleasure. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

Swin′gle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swingled; p. pr. & vb. n. Swingling.] [See Swingel.] 1. To clean, as flax, by beating it with a swingle, so as to separate the coarse parts and the woody substance from it; to scutch.

2. To beat off the tops of without pulling up the roots; — said of weeds. [Prov. Eng.] Forby.

Swin′gle, n. A wooden instrument like a large knife, about two feet long, with one thin edge, used for beating and cleaning flax; a scutcher; — called also swingling knife, swingling staff, and swingling wand.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.