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Playing on a musical pipe. "Lowing herds and piping swains." Swift.

Same as Charles's Wain. Ice plow, a plow used for cutting ice on rivers, ponds, etc., into cakes suitable for storing. [U. S.] -- Mackerel plow. See under Mackerel. -- Plow alms, a penny formerly paid by every plowland to the church. Cowell. -- Plow beam, that part of the frame of a plow to which the draught is appli…

Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment.

wind. Ps. cvii. 25. Æneas . . . employs his pains, In parts remote, to raise the Tuscan swains. Dryden.

to cleave; as, to rive timber for rails or shingles. I shall ryve him through the sides twain. Chaucer. The scolding winds have rived the knotty oaks. Shak. Brutus hath rived my heart. Shak.

nd some are scattered all the floor about. Chaucer. Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, Their scattered cottages, and ample plains Dryden. Teach the glad hours to scatter, as they fly, Soft quiet, gentle love, and endless joy. Prior.

The boatswain of a Lascar or East Ondian crew.

used for cutting cloth and other substances. Fate urged the shears, and cut the sylph in twain. Pope.

by sighs; to utter in or with sighs. They . . . sighed forth proverbs. Shak. The gentle swain . . . sighs back her grief. Hoole.

Any jager gull; especially, the Megalestris skua; -- called also boatswain.

ass. (Bot.) See Esparto. -- Spanish juice (Bot.), licorice. -- Spanish leather. See Cordwain. -- Spanish mackerel. (Zoöl.) (a) A species of mackerel (Scomber colias) found both in Europe and America. In America called chub mackerel, big-eyed mackerel, and bull mackerel. (b) In the United States, a handsome mackerel…

timber or a board; to split a gem; to split a sheepskin. Cold winter split the rocks in twain. Dryden.

as, a constable's staff. Methought this staff, mine office badge in court, Was broke in twain. Shak. All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them. Hayward.

To walk slowly, gravely, or resolutely. Home the swain retreats, His flock before him stepping to the fold. Thomson.

A clown; a country bumpkin. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] "Country swains, and silly swads." Greene. There was one busy fellow was their leader, A blunt, squat swad, but lower than yourself. B. Jonson.

See Swainmote.

See Swainmote. [Obs.]

A petty officer among lascars, or native East Indian sailors; a boatswain's mate; a cockswain. [India] Malcom.

fy, by tolling or ringing. When hollow murmurs of their evening bells Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their cells. Dryden.

Entertainment; treat. [Obs.] Accept such treatment as a swain affords. Pope.