Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
name
A river, a tributary of the Ure in North Yorkshire, England.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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name
A strait between the Isle of Sheppey and the Kentish mainland; in full, The Swale.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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name
A local government district with borough status in Kent, England, created in 1974 with its headquarters in Sittingbourne and named after the channel.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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noun
A low tract of moist or marshy land.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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noun
A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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noun
A shallow troughlike depression created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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noun
Bioswale, a shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope), whose purpose is to allow water time to percolate into the soil.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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noun
A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
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noun
A gutter in a candle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
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verb
Alternative form of sweal (“melt and waste away, or singe”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
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noun
a low area (especially a marshy area between ridges)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: trough
History
From Old English *swalwe (“rushing water”), which could be related to swealwe. Also compare the proper noun Swallow.
Possibly from Middle English swale (“a shady place, a shadow”), perhaps of North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse svalr (“cool, fresh”), Icelandic svalir (“a balcony running along a wall”).
See sweal.
Across languages
20 source translations are retained for this English entry.
