verb. (old).—To cudgel; to rope’s end (B. E. and GROSE); to swathe round with lash or stick. Hence SWADLER (old cant) = ‘The tenth Order of the Canting Tribe’ (B. E.) ‘who not only rob, but beat and often murder passengers’ (GROSE).

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  c. 1570.  The Wife Lapped in Morrells Skin, 845. [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, IV. 214].

        I sweare by God, and by saynt John,
Thy bones will I SWADDLE, so haue I blisse.

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  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Chaperon. Hee bangde, belammed, thumped, SWADLED her.

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  1612–3.  FLETCHER, The Captain, ii. 1.

                        Were it not for taking
So just an execution from his hands
You have belied thus, I would SWADDLE ye,
Till I could draw off both your skins like scabbards.

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  1636.  DAVENANT, The Wits, iii. 1. (1673).

          Snore.  How now, housewife? do you slight authority?
Behold this staff! in very truth, I shall
SWADDLE you with the king’s wand of office.

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  1663.  BUTLER, Hudibras, I. v. 23.

        Great on the Bench, Great in the Saddle,
He could as well bind o’er, as SWADDLE.

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  d. 1701.  DRYDEN, The Counter Scuffle [Miscellany Poems, iii. 347].

        Behind the Door he stood to hear;
For in he durst not come, for fear
                    of SWADLING.

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