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swither

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“

Meanwhile the big mother moose was thrashing around in the bushes in a terrible swither, calling her calf to come I had almost reached the little fellow when the wind brought him the strong scent that he had learned in the woods a few days before, and he bleated sharply.

—Wood Folk at School

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Definitions (8)

American Heritage Dictionary

Century Dictionary (7)

To fail; falter; hesitate. But the virtue o' a leal woman I trow wad never swither O. Johnnie Faa (Child's Ballads, IV. 285). The … disordered line all but reached the lip of the glacis. But there it swithered. Arch. Forbes, Souvenirs of some Continents, p. 27.
To fear. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng. or Scotch in both uses.]
Doubt; hesitation; perplexity; a state of irresolute wavering. He put the house in sic a swither That five o' them he sticket dead. Willie Wallace (Child's Ballads, VI. 236). That put me in an eerie swither. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook.

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WordNet (1)

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Examples (38)

Autumn and its thousand adjectives have come to this, a swither in the trees, their limbs bronchial and backlit in the gloam. — VQR
Meanwhile the big mother moose was thrashing around in the bushes in a terrible swither, calling her calf to come I had almost reached the little fellow when the wind brought him the strong scent that he had learned in the woods a few days before, and he bleated sharply. — Wood Folk at School
I swither, Davie Time flies, Alan," said I I ken that," said Alan. — David Balfour, Second Part Being Memoirs Of His Adventures At Home And Abroad, The Second Part: In Which Are Set Forth His Misfortunes Anent The Appin Murder; His Troubles With Lord Advocate Grant; Captivity On The Bass Rock; Journey Into Holland And France; And Singular Relations With James More Drummond Or Macgregor, A Son Of The Notorious Rob Roy, And His Daughter Catriona
They found the office in a "swither," as Harry said, over the revelations of fraud that were coming to light every day--book-keeper, clerk, and timber-checker having all been in conspiracy to defraud the company Where have you been, Harry?" — The Man from Glengarry; a tale of the Ottawa
I swither, Davie. " — Catriona

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Etymologies (4)

Century Dictionary (4)

Also swidder; from Middle English *swetheren, from Anglo-Saxon swetherian, swethrian, also swetholian, grow faint, fail, decay, abate.
Also swidder; from swither, v.
from Middle English *swithren, from Icelandic svidhra, scorch, freq. of svīdha, burn: see swithe.
Also swidder; perhaps imitative; cf. swirl.

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