Also -ee, -ey. Humorous spelling of SOIRÉE (repr. a vulgar or careless Eng. pronunciation).
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxvii. A friendly swarry, consisting of a boiled leg of mutton with the usual trimmings.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xlii. At one of her swarreys I saw one of ’em speak to a dam fiddler.
1884. Illustr. Lond. News, 15 Nov., 467/2. The complaint of the ‘English Hostess’ that ladies and gentlemen invited to dinner have become so … unpunctual that, as the lady calls it: ‘There will be no dinners in London and we shall be reduced to cold swarries.’
