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-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 (UK) (file)
Rhymes: -iːl

Verb

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

(intransitive) To burn slowly.
(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 230697985, 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.
(transitive) To singe; scorch; dress (as a hog) with burning or singeing.
(transitive, dialectal) To consume with fire; burn.
(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 855945, 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