/swɪl/
OriginFrom Middle English swilen (“to wash; swirl; wash away”), from Old English swillan, swilian (“to wash; wash down; swill; gargle”), from Proto-West Germanic *swilljan, from Proto-Germanic *swiljaną (“to gulp, swallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to drink, gulp, swallow”). Related to swallow.
- collective, countable, uncountableA mixture of solid and liquid food scraps fed to pigs etc; especially kitchen waste for this purpose.
- broadly, countable, uncountableAny disgusting or distasteful liquid.
“I cannot believe anyone could drink this swill.”
- broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountableAnything disgusting or worthless.
“This new TV show is a worthless load of swill.”
“They have helped foster a corrosive, mean-spirited, angry and divisive atmosphere that May and her lieutenants are too weak to challenge. Into this swill comes Leave financier-in-chief, Arron Banks, w”
- countable, informal, uncountableA large quantity of liquid drunk at one swallow.
“He took a swill of his drink and tried to think of words.”
- countable, informal, uncountableInexpensive beer or alcohol.
“Kesh's assistant, Wilma, wants to surprise Kesh with some bootlegged swill from Kadara.”
- countable, uncountableA badly-thrown pass.
- transitiveTo drink (or, rarely, eat) greedily or to excess.
“[…] well-dressed people, of both sexes, […] devouring sliced beef, and swilling port, and punch, and cider […]”
““It is time lost,” muttered Cedric apart and impatiently, “to speak to him of aught else but that which concerns his appetite! […] he hath no pleasure save to fill, to swill, and to call for more. […]”
“If you can give me no more than twenty-five shillings, I'm sure I'm not going to buy you pork-pie to stuff, after you've swilled a bellyful of beer.”
- transitiveTo wash (something) by flooding with water.
“As fearfully as doth a galled rock / O’erhang and jutty his confounded base, / Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.”
“Already, at three o’clock, Kezia, the good-hearted, bad-tempered housemaid, who regarded all people that came to the sale as her personal enemies, the dirt on whose feet was of a peculiarly vile quali”
“When my turn came for the bath, I asked if I might swill out the tub, which was streaked with dirt, before using it.”
- transitiveTo move (a liquid or liquid-filled vessel) in a circular motion.
“Jimmie looked lovingly at the flask, smelt it, and then, placing it next his ear, swilled it round to hear the splash of liquor.”
“He swilled round the whisky in his glass […]”
- intransitiveTo move around or over a surface.
“[…] before them, between the high banks of the Vaal, they saw only a world of brown water, streaked with white froth, hurling down upon them. It rose above the foot-board and swilled to the level of t”
“A flood of fads swilled over all Europe.”
“2000, Hanif Kureishi, “Goodbye, Mother” in Granta 69, Spring 2000, p. 119,
The smell, the internal workings of every human being, the shit, blood, mucus swilling in a bag of flesh, made him mad. He fe”
- obsolete, transitiveTo inebriate; to fill with drink.
“[…] I should be loath
To meet the rudenesse, and swill’d insolence
Of such late Wassailers;” — Comus
“Have I not kept open house for three days and nights, and swilled yourself and comrades with liquor for a week, and haven’t you all been drunk at my expense for several days?”
- transitiveTo feed swill to (pigs).
““Carlia, have you swilled the pigs?””
Formsswills(plural) · swills(present, singular, third-person) · swilling(participle, present) · swilled(participle, past) · swilled(past)