dial. Also 5 swaype, 6 swaipe, 7 swap (?). [orig. f. ON. sveip-, denoting sweeping or circle-wise motion, repr. by sveipa to sweep, wrap, swaddle, swoop (see SWOPE v.), sveipr fold of garment, in comb. öldusveipr ‘wave-sweeper,’ oar. In later usage influenced by, or varying locally with, SWEEP sb.]

1

  I.  † 1. Applied to various contrivances of the form of a lever: see quots. Obs.

2

1492–3.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 186. The swaype of þe cherch dore.

3

1666.  in Archæol. Æliana, XVII. 133. For swapes for ye bells 1s.

4

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 333, note. A Swape (a north country term for a Lever, when fixed upon a centre, and acted upon by the hand).

5

  2.  A large oar, esp. one used for steering a barge: = SWEEP sb. 27.

6

1592.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1860), 252. Half a kurvell lighter, with hir furnytter, that is, j ore and a swipe [etc.].

7

1789.  Brand, Hist. Newcastle, II. 261, note. [The keelmen] call the great oar, used as a kind of rudder at the stern of this vessel, the swape.

8

1864.  Smiles, G. & R. Stephenson, I. i. (1868), 67. The vessel being guided by the aid of the ‘swape,’ or great oar.

9

  3.  A long pole supported on a fulcrum and carrying a bucket for raising water; also, a pump-handle: = SWEEP sb. 23. Also in comb., as swape-well (for other combs. see Eng. Dial. Dict.).

10

1773.  Phil. Trans., LXIII. 179. A pump … whose handle (or swape, as it is called hereabout [sc. Ripley, Yorks.]) is all of iron, very thick and long.

11

1890.  N. & Q., 7th Ser. X. 240/1. Dwellers in the Eastern Counties may be credited with knowing what a swape-well is…. A swape-well is a well from which the water is raised by a loaded lever.

12

1908.  [Miss Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 369. I remember the two Roxby ‘Swape-wells’ … the woman pulling down the swape by the chain.

13

  4.  A sconce for a light.

14

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.

15

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech.

16

  5.  (See quot.)

17

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Swape, an implement for shaping the edge of a boring-bit.

18

  II.  † 6. The crop of hay taken up from a meadow: = SWEEP sb. 17.

19

1613.  Markham, Eng. Husbandman, II. II. vii. (1635), 85. The swap, and first crop is all the maine profit you can challenge your owne.

20

1622.  trans. Indenture an. 1456, in Gentl. Mag., May (1863), 629. It is agreed the Prior of malton and Co’uent … shall haue swape of Certen medowes.

21