swedge

English

Etymology

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

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

swedge (countable and uncountable, plural swedges)

1. A tool (originally a bevelled chisel) for making grooves in horseshoes.
2. (Scotland, slang, uncountable) The drug MDMA.

Verb

swedge (third-person singular simple present swedges, present participle swedging, simple past and past participle swedged)

1. To shape metal using a hammer or other force.
2. (colloquial) To leave (a restaurant etc.) without paying.
3. 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..

Anagrams

• Wedges, wedges