swill-bowl

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From swill +‎ bowl.

Noun

swill-bowl (plural swill-bowls)

  1. (obsolete) A drunkard.
    • 1547, John Bale, The Second Examination of Anne Askewe; republished in Christmas, Henry, editor, Select Works of John Bale, The Parker Society edition, Cambridge: University Press, 1849, Britannish, page 193:
      But nothing like to that hath been shewed since in the English church by the spiritual tyrant of Rome and his mitred termagants, at the provocation of their oiled swill-bowls and blind Balaamites. For they most cruelly brent those innocents which did but only read the testament of God in their mother-tongue; and do not yet repent them of that mischief, but continue therein.
    • 1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierce's Supererogation; or, A New Praise of the Old Ass, published 1815, page 141:
      Wantonness was never such a swill-bowl of ribaldry; nor Idleness ever such a carouser of knavery.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:swill-bowl.

Synonyms