[Of unascertained origin.
Perh. orig. a sailor’s word borrowed from the Continent, but no trace of the meaning has been discovered for phonetically corresponding words. Cf. the synonymous SWARVE v.2 and etymol. remarks s.v. SWARM sb.
Connection with squirm is out of the question, on historical and phonological grounds.]
1. intr. To climb up († upon) a pole, tree, or the like, by clasping it with the arms and legs alternately.
15[?]. Sir A. Barton, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 72. Then he swarmd up the maine mast tree [cf. SWARVE v.2, quot. a. 1650].
c. 1550. [see SWARVE v.2].
1607. Dekker, Knt.’s Conjur., B j b. The waues … boylde vp to such heigth, as if they meant that all men should swarm in heauen, and shippes to sayle in the Skie.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., III. iv. § 3. Swarming upon Trees as nimbly as Cats.
1701. C. Wolley, Jrnl. New York (1860), 41. We follow’d a Bear from Tree to Tree, upon which he could swarm like a Cat.
1804. Naval Chron., XI. 103. He swarms up to his seat.
1872. Calverley, Fly Leaves, Changed, v. They fright me, when the beech is green, By swarming up its stem for eggs.
1893. Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 433. I … could have swarmed up the branchless stem of the sapling.
b. transf. To climb a steep ascent or the like by clinging with the hands and knees, or in some way compared to this.
1681. Cotton, Wond. Peak (ed. 4), 17. Having swarm’d Sevenscore paces up,… you find a kind of Floor.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, ii. The smallest boy but one divining her intent, immediately began swarming upstairs after her—if that word of doubtful etymology be admissible—on his arms and legs.
1851. Helps, Comp. Solit., vi. (1874), 98. People who are swarming up a difficult ascent.
1890. W. Clark Russell, Ocean Trag., II. xviii. 107. Onward she held her course, swarming steadily forward in long gliding curtseyings over each frothing surge.
2. trans. with the pole, etc., as obj.
1668. H. More, Div. Dial., I. II. vi. 207. Endowing them with such … Nimbleness in swarming of trees, as Apes … have now.
a. 1769. Johnson, in Boswell, Life (1831), IV. 451. Why, I can swarm it now, [replied Dr Johnson,… on which he ran to the tree, clung round the trunk, and ascended to the branches].
1787. ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsemen (1809), 23. Like swarming the bannisters of a stair-case.
1859. F. E. Paget, Curate of Cumberworth, 72. She rushed towards a clean-stemmed beech, apparently with the intention of swarming it.
