swill

Etymology

From Middle English swilen (“to wash; swirl; wash away”), from Old English swillan, swilian (“to wash; wash down; swill; gargle”), from Proto-West Germanic *swilljan, from Proto-Germanic *swiljaną (“to gulp, swallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to drink, gulp, swallow”). Related to English swallow.

noun

1. (collective) A mixture of solid and liquid food scraps fed to pigs etc; especially kitchen waste for this purpose.
2. (by extension) Any disgusting or distasteful liquid.
   I cannot believe anyone could drink this swill.
3. (by extension, figurative) Anything disgusting or worthless.
   This new TV show is a worthless load of swill.
   They have helped foster a corrosive, mean-spirited, angry and divisive atmosphere that May and her lieutenants are too weak to challenge. Into this swill comes Leave financier-in-chief, Arron Banks, who last week announced he was setting up a “Patriotic Alliance” to attempt to unseat 100 Remain-supporting MPs. March 27, 2017, “The Observer view on triggering article 50”, in The Observer
4. (informal) A large quantity of liquid drunk at one swallow.
   He took a swill of his drink and tried to think of words.
5. (informal) Inexpensive beer or alcohol.
6. (Ultimate Frisbee) A badly-thrown pass.

verb

1. (transitive) To drink (or, rarely, eat) greedily or to excess.
   1944, Rutherford George Montgomery (as Al Avery), A Yankee Flier in Italy, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 1, p. 9, O’Malley answered calmly as he shoved half of the pie into his mouth. “Stop! Stop—swilling that pie!” the colonel roared.
2. (transitive) To wash (something) by flooding with water.
3. (transitive) To move (a liquid or liquid-filled vessel) in a circular motion.
   Jimmie looked lovingly at the flask, smelt it, and then, placing it next his ear, swilled it round to hear the splash of liquor. 1958, Muriel Spark, chapter 6, in Robinson, New York: New Directions, published 2003, page 69
4. (intransitive, of a liquid) To move around or over a surface.
   […] before them, between the high banks of the Vaal, they saw only a world of brown water, streaked with white froth, hurling down upon them. It rose above the foot-board and swilled to the level of the seat. 1906, Perceval Gibbon, “The Coward”, in Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases, New York: McClure, Phillips, pages 222–223
   A flood of fads swilled over all Europe. 1959, Ezra Pound, “Canto 96”, in The Cantos of Ezra Pound, New York: New Directions, published 1986, page 654
   2000, Hanif Kureishi, “Goodbye, Mother” in Granta 69, Spring 2000, p. 119, The smell, the internal workings of every human being, the shit, blood, mucus swilling in a bag of flesh, made him mad. He felt he was wearing the glasses the stage hypnotist had given people, but instead of seeing them naked, he saw their inner physiology, their turbulence, their death.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To inebriate; to fill with drink.
   Have I not kept open house for three days and nights, and swilled yourself and comrades with liquor for a week, and haven’t you all been drunk at my expense for several days? 17 July 1858, “A Primary Election at Peter Cooper’s Funny Little Grocery-Groggery”, in Stephen H. Branch’s Alligator, volume I, number 13, page 2
6. (transitive) To feed swill to (pigs).
   Carlia, have you swilled the pigs? 1921, Nephi Anderson, chapter 8, in Dorian, Salt Lake City, page 84