swale

Meanings

Noun

• A low tract of moist or marshy land.
• A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
• A shallow troughlike depression that's created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
• Bioswale, a shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope), whose purpose is to allow water time to percolate into the soil.
• A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.
• A gutter in a candle.

Verb

• Alternative of sweal (melt and waste away, or singe)

Origin

• Possibly from Middle English swale, perhaps of North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse svalr, Icelandic svalir.
• See sweal.