ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Sweal

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /swiːl/ · Part of speech verb

Quick meaning: Sweal is a verb meaning (intransitive) To burn slowly.

Meaning

(intransitive) To burn slowly.

More Meanings

  1. (intransitive) To melt and run down, as the tallow of a candle; waste away without feeding the flame.
  2. (transitive) To singe; scorch; dress (as a hog) with burning or singeing.
  3. (transitive, dialectal) To consume with fire; burn.
  4. (transitive, dialectal) To make disappear; cause to waste away; diminish; reduce.

Example Sentences

"He thinks it's only a tumour!" cried Annie to her mother. "And he can sweal it away."
[M]ind ye dinna let the candle sweal as ye gang alang the wainscot parlour, and haud a' the house scouring to get out the grease again.

Word Forms

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include swither, sweat, smolder, seethe, singe, swelter.

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Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.