A wooden instrument like a large knife, about two feet long, with one thin edge, used for beating and cleaning flax; a scutcher; -- called also swingling knife, swingling staff, and swingling wand.
source: Webster 1913
verb
To dangle; to wave hanging.
source: Webster 1913
To clean, as flax, by beating it with a swingle, so as to separate the coarse parts and the woody substance from it; to scutch.
