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swan-upping

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“

The time-honoured brutality of swan-upping is now mitigated by law, its cruelty being obvious.

—The Naturalist on the Thames

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Definitions (2)

American Heritage Dictionary

Century Dictionary (1)

The custom or practice of marking the upper mandible of a swan, on behalf of the crown, of Oxford University, and of several London companies or gilds. The mark is made with a cutting-instrument, and the operation is still annually performed upon the swans of the river Thames. Also called swan-marking. The taking of swans, performed annually by the swan companies, with the Lord Mayor of London at their head, for the purpose of marking them. The king's swans were marked with two nicks or notches, whence a double animal was invented, unknown to the Greeks, called the swan with two necks. A MS. of swan marks is in the library of the Royal Society, described in Arch. xvi. Upping the swans was formerly a favorite amusement, and the modern term swan-hopping is merely a corruption from it. The struggle of the swans when caught by their pursuers, and the duckings which the latter received in the contest, made this diversion very popular. Halliwell.

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Examples (2)

The time-honoured brutality of swan-upping is now mitigated by law, its cruelty being obvious. — The Naturalist on the Thames
But this is not the only ludicrous mistake that has arisen on the subject, since "swan-upping," or the taking up of swans, performed annually by the swan companies, with the Lord Mayor at their head, for the purpose of marking them, has been changed, by an unlucky asperite, into swan-_hopping_, which is perfectly unintelligible. — The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 321, July 5, 1828

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Etymologies (1)

Century Dictionary (1)

Also, corruptly, swanhopping (simulating hopping, as if in allusion to the struggling of the swans); from swan + upping.

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