sweal

English

Alternative forms

• swale

Etymology

From Middle English swelen, from Old English swelan (“to burn, be burnt up, inflame”, st vb) (compare Old English swǣlan (“to burn”, wk vb)), from Proto-West Germanic *swelan, from Proto-Germanic *swelaną (“to smoulder, burn slowly, create a burningly cold sensation”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to shine, warm, smoulder, burn”). Cognate with Dutch zwelen (“to smoulder”), Low German swelen (“to smoulder”), German schwelen (“to smoulder”), Icelandic svala (“to cool”). Related to swelter.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /swiːl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːl

Verb

sweal (third-person singular simple present sweals, present participle swealing, simple past and past participle swealed)

1. (intransitive) To burn slowly.
2. (intransitive) To melt and run down, as the tallow of a candle; waste away without feeding the flame.
   • 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter V, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume II (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 104:

     [M]ind ye dinna let the candle sweal as ye gang alang the wainscot parlour, and haud a' the house scouring to get out the grease again.

3. (transitive) To singe; scorch; dress (as a hog) with burning or singeing.
4. (transitive, dialectal) To consume with fire; burn.
5. (transitive, dialectal) To make disappear; cause to waste away; diminish; reduce.
   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Baxter Dawes”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 377:

     "He thinks it's only a tumour!" cried Annie to her mother. "And he can sweal it away."

Anagrams

• Slewa, Swale, Wales, alews, lawes, swale, wales, weals