[f. SWAP v. + -ING1.] The aciion of the verb SWAP.
† 1. Striking, smiting; smiting or cutting off. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1889. With swappyng of swerdys. Ibid., 5785. Swordis, with swapping, swaruyt on helmes.
1515. Scottish Field, 465, in Chetham Soc. Misc. (1856), II. There were swinging out of swordes, and swapping of heddes.
2. Exchanging of one thing for another; exchange, barter. slang or colloq.
1695. J. Edwards, Author. O. & N. Test., III. 231. Swapping or bartering of one thing for another.
1695. Whether Parlt. be not dissolved by Death of Princess of Orange, 21. The Blessings which we had gotten … by swopping of Kings.
a. 1739. Jarvis, Quix., III. vii. (1742), I. 110. The laws of chivalry … do not extend to the swapping of one ass for another.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 23. After having grown old in the ways of the world … hypocrisy, ‘swapping,’ trading, and evil speaking.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., iii. Dunsey Cass, whose taste for swopping and betting might turn out to be a sowing of something worse than wild oats.
1900. W. R. Moody, Life D. L. Moody, ii. 31. ‘Swapping’ is a Yankee weakness.
