English

Verb

swive ‎(third-person singular simple present swives, present participle swiving, simple past and past participle swived)

1. (transitive) To copulate with (a woman).
   • c.1674, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, A Satyr on Charles II

     'Tis sure the sauciest prick that e'er did swive

   • 2005, Sophia B. Johnson, Risk Everything:

     “You were in such heat to swive me, you tore the clothes from your body.”

   • 2008, Sarah McKerrigan, Lady Danger:

     He didn't intend to swive her here in the tiltyard, did he? Surely he was not so heathen as that.

   • 2009, Bernard Cornwell, Gallows Thief:

     His mother was a holy damned fool and swiving her was like rogering a prayerful mouse, and the bloody fool thinks he's taken after her, but he hasn't.

2. (transitive, dialectal) To cut a crop in a sweeping or rambling manner, hence to reap; cut for harvest.
   • 1815, Walter Davies, Board of Agriculture, Agricultural Surveys: pts. 1-2. South Wales (1815), page 426

     The cradled scythes of the Vale of Towey were scarcely known in the Vale of Teivy; and the swiving method of reaping wheat in the latter, was as little known in the former ...

   • 1815, Walter Davies, Board of Agriculture, General view of the agriculture and domestic economy of South Wales, Volume 1, page 425

     Swiving is a method first adopted apparently in Cardiganshire ...

   • 1905, Joseph Wright, English Dialect Dictionary, page 893

     swive ... to cut grain or beans with a broad hook; to mow with a reaping-hook ... "swiver": a reaper who "swives" the grain

   • 1929, Mary Gladys Meredith Webb, Precious Bane

     We started swiving, that is reaping, at the beginning of August-month, and we left the stooks [stalks] standing in the fields ...

   • 1955, Ceredigion Historical Society, Ceredigion: Journal of the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Association - Volumes 2-3, page 160

     Moreover, according to Walter Davies "swiving" was a method of reaping first adopted in Cardiganshire.

Derived terms

• swiving (noun)

Translations

Anagrams

• views
• wives