swash letters (swoshlet" erz)

pl. Italic capital letters of the old style with flourished projections: first made by Claude Garamond of Paris, about 1540, to fill unsightly gaps attending the use of some plain inclined letters. ABDMN P Q R Tv QU & IMG:content-2602.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2603.png:[blocks in formation] B A Swash-plate. swath, prob. 'that which has been mown,' and = 2.112. Forth hies the mower with his glittering scythe,... And lays the gra in many a swathey line. J. Baillie, A Summer's Day. orw.svad, swats (swats), n. [Also swaits; said to be ult. related to East Fries. swade, swae, swah MD. swade = MLG. LG. swade, a scythe, sickle, and to Icel. svethja, a large knife, svath, a slippery place, svethja, slide or glance off; cf. Norw.svad, smooth, slippery, svada, shred or slice off, flake off (see swad1 ). Cf. swathe2. The AS. form swathu requires a mod. E. swathe; the form swath is due to some interference, which is indicated also in the erroneous forms swarth2 and swatch.] 1. A line or ridge of gra , or grain, or the like, cut and thrown together by a seythe or mowing-machine: often used figuratively. The strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, Fall down before him, like the mower's swath . Shak . , T. and C., v. 5. 25. The farmer swung the scythe or turned the hay, And 'twixt the heavy swaths his children were at play. Bryant, After a Tempest. Reaming swats that drank divinely. Burns , Tam o' Shanter. swatte. Same as swat2 . swatter (swat'er), v. i. [Sc. also squatter , E. dial. var. swattle ; swaddren , dabble in water, Sw. dial. skvadra , squirt, Sw. sqrat- tra, squander; freq. of the verb appearing in Dan. skvatte, splash, spirt, squander, Sw. squatta; cf. Sw. dial. skwatta, squirt, = Icel. skvetta, squirt. Cf. swat2, throw down violently, swash, a torrent of water. Cf. also squander.] To splutter; flounce; move rapidly in any fluid, generally in an undulating way. Sir D. Lyndsay. [Prov. Eng. and Scotch.] sway (swa), v. [(a) svigna, give way, svigi, a bending switch, svig, a bend), = Sw. dial. sviga (pret. sveg ), bend. (b) Cf. Sw. svaja = Dan. svaie, jerk, = D. zwaaijen, sway, Scribner's Mag., VIII. 161. swing, brandish, = LG. swajen, waver in the 2. The whole reach or sweep of a scythe or cut of a mowing-machine; also, the path or pa age so cut: as, a wide swath: often used figuratively. Merry mowers, hale and strong, Swept, scythe on scythe, their swaths along. Whittier, Snow-Bound. At last they drew up before the station at Torresdale. It was quite deserted, and only a single light cut a swath in the darkne . 3t. A track; trace. Cam him no fieres swathe ner [near]. Genesis and Exodus , 1. 3786. To cut a wide swath, to make ostentatious display; splurge; cut a swell. [Colloq. or slang.] swath2, n. Same as swathe2 . swathbandt, swathbondt, n. A swaddling- band. wind. Cf. swag1, a collateral form of sway, and see swing. The Sw. Dan. svag, weak, pliant, is appar. of LG. or G. origin, MHG. swach, G. schwach, weak: a word of a different root (see sick1).] I. in trans. 1. To bend to one side, as by exce of weight; hang in a heavy, unsteady manner; lean away from the perpendicular; swag: as, a wall that sways to the west; also, to bend or lean first to one side and then to the Sypers, swath bonds , rybandes, and slevelaces. J. Heywood , Four P's, in Dodsley's Old Plays, I. 64. other; swing backward and forward. Wash'd sweetly over, swaddled with sincere And spotle swath bands . Chapman, tr. of Homer's Hymn to Apollo, 1. 179.