swedge
English edit
Etymology edit
Variant of English swage (“a groove, moulding; moulding tool”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Why the sense about leaving a restaurant without paying?”)
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun edit
swedge (countable and uncountable, plural swedges)
- A tool (originally a bevelled chisel) for making grooves in horseshoes.
- (Scotland, slang, uncountable) The drug MDMA.
Verb edit
swedge (third-person singular simple present swedges, present participle swedging, simple past and past participle swedged)
- To shape metal using a hammer or other force.
- (colloquial) To leave (a restaurant etc.) without paying.
- To fold under or round an object.
- 1901, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 14, in Kim:
- He bound them into a neat packet, swedging down the stiff, sticky oilcloth at the corners..