sweal

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sweal

/swiːl/ UK

Rhymes with -iːl

Where it comes from

From Middle English swelen, from Old English swelan (“to burn, be burnt up, inflame”) (compare Old English swǣlan (“to burn”)), from Proto-West Germanic *swelan, from Proto-Germanic *swelaną (“to smoulder, burn slowly, create a burningly cold sensation”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to shine, warm, smoulder, burn”). Cognate with Dutch zwelen (“to smoulder”), Low German swelen (“to smoulder”), German schwelen (“to smoulder”), Icelandic svala (“to cool”). Related to swelter.

verb sweals · swealing · swealed · swale

intransitive To burn slowly.
intransitive To melt and run down, as the tallow of a candle; waste away without feeding the flame. [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.
transitive To singe; scorch; dress (as a hog) with burning or singeing.
dialectal, transitive To consume with fire; burn.
dialectal, transitive To make disappear; cause to waste away; diminish; reduce. "He thinks it's only a tumour!" cried Annie to her mother. "And he can sweal it away."

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MLA

"sweal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sweal. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

sweal. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sweal

Chicago

"sweal." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sweal.

BibTeX

@misc{sweal_2026,
  title = {sweal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sweal},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}