swingle

1. (transitive) To beat or flog, especially for extracting the fibres from flax stalks; to scutch.Examples: "Now after you have swingled your Hempe and Flaxe ouer once, you shall take and shake up the refuse stuffe, which you beate from the same seuerally, and not only it, but the tops and knots, and halfe brak't buns which fall from the brake also, and drying them againe cause them to bee very well thresht with flayles, and then mixing them with th refuse which fell from the swingle tree, dresse them all well with threshing and shaking, till the buns be cleane driuen out of them;"; "The instruments necessary to swingle flax are, a tressel, and a swingle."; "The first operation in dressing flax is to swingle or beat it, in order to detach it from the harle or skimps."transitive

1. (obsolete, UK, dialect) To swing for pleasure.UKdialectalobsolete