swipple

plural swipples · alternative swipel · alternative swiple

1. The part of a flail that is free to swing, and which strikes the grain in threshing.

   The flail has now become such a rare agricultural implement that it is well to bear in mind that its two main parts were the handstaff and swipple.

   1907, Marmaduke Charles Frederick Morris, Nunburnholme: its history and antiquities, H. Frowde, page 227

   2 more examples

   As showing the local influence of the tool, one may refer to the custom in Yorkshire by which a girl, on being proposed to, took a piece of straw and broke it into two lengths (long and short), typifying the handstaff and swipple of the flail. If she gave the former to her lover, she accepted him: but if she tendered the shorter piece, "she gave him 't swipple end," or rejected him.

   1907, Notes and Queries, Oxford University Press, page 317

   Traditional flails had a handle (haft), usually about 40 inches long, and a swipple (also called a swingle), about 24 inches long. The two pieces were hinged together with leather or eel skin.

   2011, Robert E. Gough, Cheryl Moore-Gough, The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds, Storey Publishing, page 46

   Synonyms: swingle