swingle

Etymology 1

The noun is from Middle English swingel, from Old English swingel, swingelle (“whip, scourge”), equivalent to swing + -le. Related to Middle Dutch swingel, swengel, Dutch zwingel, zwengel. Doublet of swingel. The verb is from Middle English swingelen, from the noun. Related to Middle Dutch swingelen, swengelen.

noun

1. An implement used to separate the fibres of flax by beating them; a scutch.
2. The swinging part of a flail, especially that which is used on the grain in threshing; the swiple.
   The pole of the Chinese flail is roughly 90 cm. long, the swingle about 30 cm. in length, joined to the pole by a wooden axle projecting at right-angles from the top of the swingle and passing through a loop at the top of the pole[…] 1984-04-19, Joseph Needham, Francesca Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, Part 2, Agriculture, Cambridge University Press, page 357
   (A flail swingle was a large wooden handle attached to a freeswinging stick, which was used in threshing grain.) 2004, Elizabeth Hafkin Pleck, Domestic Tyranny: The Making of American Social Policy Against Family Violence from Colonial Times to the Present, University of Illinois Press, page 27
   Once cut into the correct size and shape, the handle of the flail, dumb in bendum 'unspeaking in bonds' (6b), is attached to the swingle or swipple, the swinging part of the flail, with a cord, rope, or chain tied through the hole or[…] 2013 10, Michael D. J. Bintley, Michael G. Shapland, Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World, Oxford University Press, page 137

verb

1. (transitive) To beat or flog, especially for extracting the fibres from flax stalks; to scutch.
   Now after you have swingled your Hempe and Flaxe ouer once, you shall take and shake up the refuse stuffe, which you beate from the same seuerally, and not only it, but the tops and knots, and halfe brak't buns which fall from the brake also, and drying them againe cause them to bee very well thresht with flayles, and then mixing them with th refuse which fell from the swingle tree, dresse them all well with threshing and shaking, till the buns be cleane driuen out of them; 1623, Gervase Markham, Country Contentments, or The approued Booke called the English Hous-wife, page 168
   The instruments necessary to swingle flax are, a tressel, and a swingle. 1764, Duhamel du Monceau, The Elements of Agriculture - Volume 2, page 174
   The first operation in dressing flax is to swingle or beat it, in order to detach it from the harle or skimps. 1858, John Harland, editor, The House and Farm Accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall, in the County of Lancaster
   Just what he said, they neither of them knew. For hearing is a sense made blunt by fright; But then their ears were flushed, and burned and tingled, As if they'd been by some sharp weapon swingled. 1867, Horatius Flaccus, The Vision of Judgment: Or The South Church
   She returned to her swingling and added reflectively : " That's what made me leave in the first place, to keep out of harm's way. […]". 1976, Andriĭ Vasylʹovych Holovko, The Weeds: A Novel, page 28
   Later she “spread, rotted, broke, swingled, and hacked” the weeds, twisting together several strands of fiber, and she used these strands to weave a frail fabric on a home-built loom. 2021, Helen D. Irvin, Women in Kentucky

Etymology 2

From swing + -le (frequentative suffix).

verb

1. To dangle; to wave hanging.
2. (obsolete, UK, dialect) To swing for pleasure.