swill-bowl
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Noun edit
swill-bowl (plural swill-bowls)
- (obsolete) A drunkard.
- 1547, John Bale, The Second Examination of Anne Askewe; republished in Christmas, Henry, editor, Select Works of John Bale[1], The Parker Society edition, Cambridge: University Press, 1849, Britannish, page 193:
- But nothing like to that hath been shewed since in the English church by the spiritual tyrant of Rome and his mitred termagants, at the provocation of their oiled swill-bowls and blind Balaamites. For they most cruelly brent those innocents which did but only read the testament of God in their mother-tongue; and do not yet repent them of that mischief, but continue therein.
- 1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierce's Supererogation; or, A New Praise of the Old Ass[2], published 1815, page 141:
- Wantonness was never such a swill-bowl of ribaldry; nor Idleness ever such a carouser of knavery.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:swill-bowl.
Synonyms edit
- reel-pot, squeeze-grape; see also Thesaurus:drunkard