SWILLING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Swilling

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/swˈɪlɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Swill v. t. (past & past part. swilled; pres. part. swilling)

To wash; to drench. (Obs.) "As fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean."

To drink in great draughts; to swallow greedily. "Well-dressed people, of both sexes,... devouring sliced beef, and swilling pork, and punch, and cider."

To inebriate; to fill with drink. "I should be loth To meet the rudeness and swilled insolence Of such late wassailers."

Swill v. i. To drink greedily or swinishly; to drink to excess.

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Etymology of 'Swilling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Swilling" Quotes from Famous Books

... an event in the quiet cathedral city caused the greatest excitement, and the streets were filled with people talking over the matter. Amateur detectives, swilling beer in public-houses, gave their opinions about the crime, and the more beer they drank, the wilder and more impossible became their theories. Some suggested that the gipsies camped on Southberry Heath, who were continually ...

— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume

... brilliant whiteness pointed out the way for us as we wandered about. Nevertheless, we had no less cause for being in a sweat even when we came to our lodging, for the old woman herself had been sitting and swilling so long with her guests that even if one had set her afire, she would not have known it. We would have spent the night on the door-sill had not Trimalchio's courier come up in state, with ten wagons; he hammered on the door for a short time, and then smashed it in, giving us an entrance ...

— The Satyricon, Complete • Petronius Arbiter

... had been, and how he had come to be such as he was: but he could only conjecture that he was a gluttonous alderman whom nature had treated homeopathically. And now there was such a cleaning and clearing out of neglected places, such a burying and burning of refuse, such a rinsing of jugs, such a swilling of sinks, and such a flushing of drains as would have delighted the eyes of all true housekeepers ...

— The Princess and the Curdie • George MacDonald

... the thought of denying him the information had not occurred to her. Undoubtedly it was foolish to refuse his offer. She would get wet through before she reached Hammersmith. The tarpaulin only covered her skirt, and in the lap that it made was already a pool of water swilling backwards and forwards with the rocking of the 'bus. Through her mind raced a swift calculation, estimating the benefits she would gain by keeping dry. They were not many in number, but they entered the balance, dragged down the scales of her decision. ...

— Sally Bishop - A Romance • E. Temple Thurston

... funnels and a foot of water swilling across the floor plates in the engine-room, bore down upon them about noon and took her crippled sister in tow. They passed slowly away to the westward, leaving the circle of grey, tumbling sea to the floating wreckage of a hundred ...

— The Long Trick • Lewis Anselm da Costa Ritchie