Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SWAIL, n. Also swale, swell, swyle, swile. A wet hollow, a boggy depression or miry place in the ground (n.Sc. 1825 Jam. swell; Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 188, Bnff. 1972). Adj. swaly, swylie, boggy, full of wet hollows (Gregor). Also in U.S. [swɑel]Slg. 1752 Session Papers, Cowan v. Wilson (9 June) 49:
A Swell or Bog on each Side.Mry. 1754 Session Papers, Gordon v. Dunbar (21 Jan.) 1:
A piece of Marshy Ground, called the Swells of Begro, . . . these Swells having been overblown with Sand about forty Years ago.Mry. 1763 Session Papers, Dunbar v. Dunbar, State of Process 20:
He remembers a meikle Swall [sic] in the Star, in the Middle whereof there was a Hist or a little Bit of rising Ground. . . . The Ground about it was so swaly, that the Cattle would sometimes have laired in it.Kcd. 1784 Session Papers, Earl of Peterborough v. Garrioch (3 Jan.) 8:
On account of the wetness of the soil, and some deep mossy swails.Abd. 1795 Session Papers, Leslie v. Fraser (29 March 1805) 74:
A bog or swell that beasts would have laired in.Abd. 1891 G. W. Anderson Strathbogie 227:
In many places (termed swyles or showdies) the great depths of the morass were covered by an elastic scum, on which it was possible to walk.Bnff. 1974 Dufftown News (2 Feb.) 2:
They seen gat tae the flat o' swiles An there did lay their net.