Noun: swaddle
| Singular | swaddle |
| Plural | swaddles |
Sample Sentences
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They put me in bed in all my swaddles. [1711 June 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, June 13, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 90; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:]
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The baby is awake, trying to escape the swaddle I have imprisoned her in. [2020, Avni Doshi, Burnt Sugar, Hamish Hamilton, page 207:]
Nouns inflected like swaddle
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English swathlen (“to bind; swaddle”), from Middle English swathel, swethel, from Old English swaþul, swæþel, sweþel, sweoþol (“swaddling cloth”), equivalent to swathe (“to wrap with fabric”) + -le (agent/instrumental suffix), the word then underwent th-stopping (its voiced th became a d). Cognate with Middle Dutch swadel (“swaddling; bandage”), Old High German swedili (“poultice”), Old English sweþian, besweþian (“to wrap; swaddle”). See: Middle English Nouns '
swathel', Old English Nouns '
sweþian'.