swipple
swipple noun: the part of a flail that is free to swing, and which strikes the grain in threshing.
Noun
swipple (plural swipples)
- The part of a flail that is free to swing, and which strikes the grain in threshing.
- The flail has now become such a rare agricultural implement that it is well to bear in mind that its two main parts were the handstaff and swipple.1907, Marmaduke Charles Frederick Morris, Nunburnholme: its history and antiquities, H. Frowde, page 227
- As showing the local influence of the tool, one may refer to the custom in Yorkshire by which a girl, on being proposed to, took a piece of straw and broke it into two lengths (long and short), typifying the handstaff and swipple of the flail. If she gave the former to her lover, she accepted him...1907, Notes and Queries, Oxford University Press, page 317
- Synonyms:
- swingle
Examples of swipple in a sentence
- If she gave the former to her lover, she accepted him: but if she tendered the shorter piece, "she gave him 't swipple end," or rejected him.1907, Notes and Queries, Oxford University Press, page 317:
- Traditional flails had a handle (haft), usually about 40 inches long, and a swipple (also called a swingle), about 24 inches long.2011, Robert E. Gough, Cheryl Moore-Gough, The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds, Storey Publishing, page 46:
Synonyms of swipple
Forms of swipple
| plural | swipples |
|---|---|
| alternative form | swipel |
| alternative form | swiple |
Origin of swipple
See swipe.
Questions about swipple
- What does swipple mean?
- Swipple means the part of a flail that is free to swing, and which strikes the grain in threshing.
- How do you use swipple in a sentence?
- If she gave the former to her lover, she accepted him: but if she tendered the shorter piece, "she gave him 't swipple end," or rejected him.
- What part of speech is swipple?
- Swipple is a noun.
- What is the plural of swipple?
- The plural of swipple is swipples.
Words near swipple in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swipple (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “swipple.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swipple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.