swale
See also: Swale
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sweɪl/
- Rhymes: -eɪl
Etymology 1
Possibly from Middle English shade, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse svalr.
Noun
swale (plural swales)
- A low tract of moist or marshy land.
- A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
- A shallow troughlike depression that's created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
- A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.
- 1912, Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage, Chapter 6
- Jane climbed a few more paces behind him and then peeped over the ridge. Just beyond began a shallow swale that deepened and widened into a valley, and then swung to the left.
- 1912, Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage, Chapter 6
- A shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope). Its purpose being to allow water time to percolate into the soil.
- 2009, Toby Hemenway, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition, Chelsea Green Publishing (→ISBN), page 101:
- The stored water creates an underground reservoir that aids plant growth for tens of feet below the swale. Swales also prevent gullies from forming by intercepting rainwater, slowing it, spreading it, and storing it in the soil.
- 2009, Toby Hemenway, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition, Chelsea Green Publishing (→ISBN), page 101:
Translations
low tract of moist or marshy land
|
long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach
shallow troughlike depression created to carry water
|
shallow depression sloping downward from a meadow
Etymology 2
See sweal.
Noun
swale (plural swales)
- (Britain, dialectal) A gutter in a candle.
Verb
swale (third-person singular simple present swales, present participle swaling, simple past and past participle swaled)
- Alternative form of sweal (melt and waste away, or singe)
Anagrams
- Wales, alews, lawes, sweal, wales, weals
Middle English
Noun
swale
- Alternative form of whale