Forms: α. 4– swap, 4–7 swappe, (5 squappe, swape), 6–7 swapp; pa. t. 3–6 swapte, 4 swappede, (5 sqwapputte); pa. t. and pple. 4– swapped, swapt; Sc. and north. 4–5 swappyt, 4–6 swappit, 6 swapit, (suapit). β. 5–6 swope, 7– swop; pa. t. and pple. 7– swopped, swopt. [prob. of echoic origin, signifying a smart resounding blow (cf. SWAP adv.). So G. dial. schwappe resounding box on the ear, schwappen to make a clapping or splashing noise, to strike with a resounding blow.
The development of the sense of concluding a bargain from that of striking is paralleled in various uses of strike; cf. also L. fædus ferire.]
I. † 1. trans. To strike, hit, smite (occas. used of kissing). Also fig. Obs.
a. 1400. Leg. Rood (1871), 142. A swerd swapped hire þorw þe brest.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1271. With a swinge of his sworde [he] swappit hym in þe fase.
c. 1400. Anturs of Arth., xl. (Douce MS.). He swapped [v.r. sqwapputte] him yne at þe swyre, with a swerde kene.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxx. 286. A sweuene þat swiftely hir swapped, Of one Jesu þe juste man.
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., III. xxiv. Wks. 1256/2. They that lye in a plewrosy, thinke that euery time they cough, they fele a sharp sweorde swap them to the heart.
1557. Phaër, Æneid, VI. R j b. Anon the giltie soules … Tisiphonee doth take, and scourging them she swappes with whippes.
1577–82. Breton, Flourish upon Fancie (Grosart), 6/2. To … swap ech slut vpon the lippes, that in the darke he meetes.
b. To strike or smite off, in two, etc.; to cut or chop off or asunder at one blow; to drive out, etc., by striking. Obs. exc. arch. Also † To swap to (the) death, of live, to kill at a blow.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 3609. To haue with his swerd swapped of his hed.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 691. The gynour than gert bend in hy The gyne, and swappit out the stane.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sec. Nun’s T., 247. Who so wol nat sacrifise Swape [v.rr. swap, swappe] of his heed.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 957 (Ashm. MS.). He swyngis out with a swerd & swappis him to dethe.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 6699. With a swyng of his sword [he] swappit hym of lyue.
c. 1400. Anturs of Arth., xl. (Ireland MS.). Syxti maylis and moe, The squrd squappes [Douce MS. swapt] in toe.
a. 1500[?]. Chester Pl., xiv. 389. The Devill Swapp [MS. W. 1592 swope] of my Swyre, if I do it without hyre.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, X. 186. The king for thirtenth Diomede out life to death doth swap.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 92. Feare thear vs enforced … Too swap of our cables.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XX. xxxiii. And then Alarcos head she swapt off cleene.
1888. Doughty, Trav. Arabia Deserta, II. 17. Drawing his sword, he … swapt off at once the miserable man’s head.
c. To cut or reap (corn or other crops) close to the ground with a ‘swap-hook’ (see 6). dial.
1853. W. D. Cooper, Sussex Gloss. (ed. 2), Swap,… to cut wheat in a peculiar way, more like chopping than reaping. S.
1861. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XXII. II. 378. Both crops were ‘swapped,’ or cut close to the ground.
1903. Sat. Rev., 8 Aug., 168/2. It is time … to go swapping the laid piece down by Kixes Wood.
2. intr. To strike, smite, deal a blow or blows. Now rare or Obs.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1129. He … Swappez in with the swerde Þat it þe swange brystedde. Ibid., 1795. He spede hym fulle ȝerne, Swappede owtte with a swerde.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5936. He swappit at hym swithe with a swerd felle.
c. 1400. Song Roland, 747. He drawithe out his swerd, and swappithe hym about.
c. 1465. Chevy Chase, xxxi. in Child, Ballads (1889), III. 309/1. The swapte togethar tylle the both swat, With swordes that wear of fyn myllan.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), I. 206. Tha swapit ouir quhill all the swyir did swydder.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 63. Wi’ angry bill, and will theretill, They wapp’t and swapp’t, and flapp’t and slapp’t.
3. trans. To move (something) quickly or briskly, esp. so as to impinge upon something else; to fling, cast, throw (down, etc.) forcibly; to bang (a door) to; refl. to sit down with force, plump oneself down. Obs. exc. dial.
13[?]. Sir Beues (A.), 1899. Beues is swerd anon vp swapte.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 245. His hed to þe wal, his body to þe grounde Ful ofte he swapte.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 623. Ȝeit ves thar ane Of thame that swappit doun a stane.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xiii. 2022 (Wemyss MS.). He swappit egirly þe blude Rycht in till William Wallace face.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., i. 3 (Harl. MS.). He swapte his hed vndir þe watir.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, i. 111. Sheele swap thee into hir plackerd.
1592. Babington, Comf. Notes Gen., xviii. 71 b. We swap vs downe in our places most vnreuerently.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, P iv. He runs and swaps the doore too.
1642. Life Hen. II., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), V. 235. Because the legate was not to remove, and the archbishop would not remove, therefore he most unmannerly swopped him down on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lap.
1794. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Frogs & Jupiter, Wks. 1812, III. 259. Down he swopp’d A monstrous Piece of Wood.
1825. Mackenzie, Hist. Northumbld., I. 149, note. To swap the door … is as much as to say, shut it violently.
1846. W. E. Forster, in Reid, Life (1888), I. vi. 186. Only think of poor self swapped down in the midst of forty Quakeresses.
4. intr. To move with haste or violence, esp. so as to strike or impinge upon something; to fall down suddenly or with a ‘flop’; to sink into a swoon; to come hastily or forcibly, fling oneself into a place, etc. Now rare or Obs.
The instance of swapte in the later text of Layamon, 26775 (Beofs to him swapte [earlier text him biarnde] and mid harmes hine biclupte) is prob. an error for swipte (see SWIP), a frequent form in Layamon.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 683. The stane smertly swappit out.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerk’s T., 1099. Al sodeynly she swapte [v.r. swapped] adoun to grounde.
a. 1400. Minor Poems Vernon MS. (1901), 621. Heo swapte on swownyng.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VII. 349. As bestly folk [thai] tuk off thaim selff no keip … Through full gluttre in swarff swappyt lik swyn.
1530. Lyndesay, Test. Papyngo, 184. Scho … flatlyngis fell, and swappit in to swoun.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, Capitall de Buz, 113. With chilling fear, the Ladies swapped downe, In deadly sownd.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, I. xv. 93. The kite,… which sometimes will not let to swap into the very broode-house to … carrie away the chickens.
a. 1700. Kennett, MS. Lansd. 1033. To swapp or swoop at, catch hastily as a kite is said to swapp at chickens.
1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., V. iii. So in swops me, with my Hoop stuff’d up to my Forehead!
1770. Foote, Lame Lover, II. Wks. 1799, II. 79. There he swops with both his knees on the ground.
b. To flap or beat up and down: also with it.
c. 1520. Skelton, Magnyf., 775. Thy slyppers they swap it, yet thou fotys it lyke a swanne.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), III. 561. Vpoun ane suey ay swappand vp and doun.
1884. ‘Mark Twain,’ Huck. Finn, viii. There was freckled places on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little breeze up there.
c. trans. To pounce upon, seize.
a. 1712. W. King, Eagle & Robin, 137. They’ll swop our chicken from the door.
1821. [see SWAPPING ppl. a. 1].
† 5. trans. To drink off quickly, toss off; to eat up, devour. Obs.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 243. Thai swapit of the sueit wyne.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 41. At a blow hee lustelye swapping, Thee wyne … swild vp to the bottom.
1592. Nashe, Four Lett. Confut., Ep. Ded. Wks. 1904, I. 258. That thou mightst swappe off a hartie draught to the success of this voiage.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 231. Thou hast swapped-downe a pounde of Butter at a peece of a Breakefast.
1609. Healey, Discov. New World, I. 1. Where that huge … Birde called Rvc, snatcheth vp … a whole Elephant at a stoope, and swappes him vp at a bit.
6. Comb.: swap-hook dial., a kind of reaping-hook for cutting crops close to the ground (see 1 c); † swap-tail a., that strikes with its tail.
1863. Standard, 10 Sept. (Sussex provincialism), *Swap-hook.
1875. Parish, Dict. Sussex Dial., Swap, to reap corn and beans. Swap-hook, the implement used for swapping.
1883. Jefferies, Life of Fields (1884), 84. [In Sussex] They call their reaphooks swaphooks or swophooks.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. II. iii. 46. The *Swaptail Lizard. Uromastix vel Caudiverbera.
II. † 7. a. absol. or intr. app. To ‘strike hands’ in token of an agreement or bargain. Obs. rare–1.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1108. Swete, swap we so, sware with trawþe.
† b. trans. To strike (a bargain). Also with up.
1590. Lodge, Rosalind (1592), F ij. Aliena … swapt a bargaine with his Landslord.
1592. Greene, Black Bookes Messenger, Wks. (Grosart), XI. 17. Wee like two good Horse-corsers, made a choppe and change, and swapt vp a Rogish bargaine, and so he married my wife and I his.
1650. J. Reynolds, Flower of Fidelity, 147. They forth with swapt a bargain.
1692. [A. Pitcairn], Assembly, IV. i. (1766), 46. I must know what you can do, ere I swap a Bargain.
8. To give or dispose of in exchange for something else; to exchange (a thing) with another person. Chiefly, now only, slang or colloq.
Probably orig. a horsedealer’s term: cf. 1592 in 7 b.
α. 1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie, V. iii. Ile not swap my father for all this. Ibid. (1600), Love’s Metam., I. ii. Inconstancie is a vice, which I will not swap for all the vertues.
1646. J. Hall, Poems, To Mr. Hall on his … Detractors. Thy works purchase thee more Then they can swappe there Heritages for.
1679. Lond. Gaz., No. 1423/4. He swapt a sorrel Stonehorse near Ripon about 14 or 15 hands high.
1708. N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 61. He was about swaping his Running Hors with my Lord Mountg[arret].
1798. Root, Amer. Law Rep., I. 66. One Rose and Charles Knot … proposed to swap shoe buckles.
1823. Moore, Mem. (1853), IV. 149. Find that the man with whom I wished to swap ponies requires five pounds with mine.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 154. He will ‘swap’ anything with you.
1830–2. Carleton, Traits (1843), I. 263. I offer up a pater and are for you, and you again for me. This is called swapping or exchanging prayers.
1861. Thackeray, Four Georges, i. (1876), 7. [He] swapped a battalion against a dancing-girl’s diamond necklace.
1864. Abraham Lincoln, in E. R. Jones, Lincoln, etc. (1876), 59. I am reminded … of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked … ‘that it was not best to swap horses when crossing a stream.’
1888. Eggleston, Graysons, x. 109. Farmers frequented the town, to meet old friends and get the better of them in swapping horses.
1891. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 12 Sept., 5/1. As they sat in the tavern, swapping stories.
β. 1624. Quarles, Job, i. There dwelt a man brought from his linniage That for his belly swopt his heritage.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Poems, To T. C., 45. For to make Mummie of her Grease, Or swop her to the Paper Mill.
1660. Okie’s Lament., 38. My Horses swopt for light Nags.
1764. H. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 27 July. I believe my Lady Temple would … be heartily glad to swop situations with you.
1800. Mar. Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent, Gloss. p. xxxviii. He makes me an offer to swop his mare that he couldn’t sell at the fair of Gurtishannon.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, xviii. The new-fashioned finery which she swopt her character for.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., vii. (1891), 96. I wish our little man and him would swop pulpits.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. iv. 66. He bought and sold and swopped horses.
1890. Younghusband, Polo in India, iii. 42. Jones’s Rs. 500 pony had been swopped for a worthless mare.
b. with advs. away, off.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 1. He … swapt away his siluer for Copper retaile.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 500. They swap us away for a little Money to the Butcher.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4404/3. He rode a stout black Mare the Day before taken, which he swop’d away.
1841. J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, I. 204. Two cover-hacks … were exchanged, or rather, in stable phrase, swapped away.
1862. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. II. iii. 140. Swappin’ silver off for lead ain’t the sure way to win.
1866. Whittier, Summer with Dr. Singletary, vi. I’ve noticed that your college chaps swop away their common sense for their larning.
1907. Kate D. Wiggin, New Chron. Rebecca, viii. 230. He breaks all the young colts and trains them, and swaps off the poor ones.
c. absol. To exchange, make an exchange.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, lxxxiii. Doff your coat and waistcoat, and swop with Monsieur Grinagain here.
1809. Kendall, Trav., III. lxix. 87. To buy, to sell, to exchange, or, as they term it, to swap, are the pursuits in which they wish to be constantly engaged.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. ix. I know something or him at home, and should like to excuse him—will you swop?
1883. J. K. Jerome, On the Stage, 153. If any gentleman has more friends of that kind than he wants, and would care to have a few of the opposite stamp, I am quite ready to swop with him.
9. transf. in various slang uses. a. To dismiss or be dismissed from employment. b. To cheat, take in. c. To change one’s clothes.
1862. Macm. Mag., Nov., 34. The assistant [in a linendraper’s] … ‘swops’ or is ‘swopped,’ or gets or gives ‘the sack.’
1880. J. C. Harris, Uncle Remus, iv. Den Brer Fox know dat he bin swop off mighty bad.
1904. Sladen, Playing the Game, II. xiv. My man can bring my dress things later, if you’ll give me a room to swop in.
1905. H. G. Wells, Kipps, I. v. heading, ‘Swapped!’ [= dismissed].
