swabber (swober)

[Also swobber; Go and reform thyself; prithee, be sweeter; And know my lady speaks with no such swabbers . swag swaddle (swod'l), n. [Early mod. E. swadle, swadil , swadell ; swadel , swathel , swethel , suethel , swethel , swethil , a swaddling-band (=MD. swadel ), swethian , bind, swathe: see swathe .] A bandage or long strip of cloth used for wrapping a child, or for bandaging in any similar manner; a swaddling-band. O sacred Place, which wert the Cradle Of th' only Man-God, and his happy Swadle . Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Captaines. They... ordered me to be carried to one of their houses, and put to bed in all my swaddles. Add is on, Spectator, No. 90. swaddle (swod'l), v. t.; pret. and pp. swaddled , ppr. swaddling . [Formerly also swathle ; swathilen , swethlen , suedelen ; swaddle , n.] 1. Beau, and Fl., Scornful Lady, iii. 1. To bind with long and narrow bandages, or as Jolly gentleman! More fit to be a swabber to the Flemish After a drunken surfeit. Ford, Perkin Warbeck, i. 1. if with bandages; swathe: said especially of young children, who are still bandaged in this manner in many parts of Europe to prevent them from using their limbs freely, owing to a I am his swabber, his chamberlain, his footman, his clerk, fancy that those who are left free in infancy be his butler, book-keeper, his brawl, his errand boy. come deformed. Their feet to this end so straitly swadled in their infancie that they grow but little. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 446. N. Bailey , tr. of Colloquies of Erasmus, p. 42. 2. A bakers' implement for cleaning the oven. It consists of a bunch of netting on the end of a long pole, and is wetted for use. - 3. pl . Certain cards at whist the holder of which appears formerly to have been entitled to a part of the 2t. To beat; cudgel. stakes. According to Grose (Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785), they were the "ace of hearts, knave of clubs, ace and duce of trumps." At the commencement of last century, according to who played the game with swabbers; these were certain Swift, it [whist] was a favourite pastime with clergymen, in the same manner that the claim is made for the aces at cards by which the holder was entitled to part of the stake, quadrille. Strutt , Sports and Pastimes, p. 436. Whisk and swabbers, an old form of whist. I suppose the society of half a dozen of clowns to play at whisk and swabbers would give her more pleasure than if Ariosto himself were to awake from the dead. IMG:content-2577.png:[blocks in formation]