swatch
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From earlier Northern England dialectal swache (“the counterfoil or counterstock of a tally”) (1512); further etymology unknown. Cognate with Scots swach, swatch. Compare English swath, swathe. Compare also Old English swæcc (“taste; flavour; odour; fragrance”).
Inflected forms:
form: swatches
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: swatches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: swatching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: swatched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: swatched
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A piece, pattern, or sample, generally of cloth or a similar material.
pos: noun
examples: He held a swatch of the wallpaper up to see if the colors would match the room.
[...] I beg you will go to Bailie Delap's shop, and get patterns of his best black bombaseen, and crape, and muslin, and bring them over to the parsonage, the morn's morning. [...] You will get, likewise, swatches of mourning print, with the lowest prices.
I love knitting motif swatches. They're small and quick to make, allowing you to experiment with new stitch patterns and techniques without a big commitment in time and yarn.
"Shall I give you some money now for the swatches?" asked Mrs. Flynn. / "What's a swatch?" Sophie asked suddenly. / "A swatch," said Zoey, "is a little sample of fabric that people use to pick and choose what will work for them without having to buy a whole yard. And fabric swatches are free! So don't worry."
gloss: A selection of such samples bound together.
pos: noun
examples: “Aisha, access the Pupa's informational color swatches. Okay, royal blue means the Pupa has kennel cough, cornflower blue means one of us just had a sex dream about the other one, navy blue means his Hulu plan is expiring, robin's egg blue means we get a free Xbox, Pacific blue means we all die at midnight!” [all gasp] “We were so close to gettin' that Xbox!”
gloss: A clump or portion of something.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: I found myself truly moved by a stage event for the first time in years. I found myself humming tunes that one might not rightfully call tunes. Days later, I still remember these musical phrasings in little swatches of sound.
Mix ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson in your palette until you get a rich purple, then paint a swatch on dry watercolor paper [...]. Next paint a swatch of ultramarine blue on dry watercolor paper. While this is still wet, add alizarin crimson to the lower part of the blue wash, and watch the colors connect and blend [...]. Compare the two swatches.
A swatch of hair, cleaned with a cosmetic treatment (shampoo, conditioner, etc.), is wetted, combed and then tangled according to a standardized protocol. The combing forces on the swatch are measured with an extensometer.
gloss: A demonstration, an example, a proof.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: Pray Sir, pay off the Old Debt, before I truſt you more New. This is a Swatch of Your Faith, and how much You are a Man of Your Word.
There were about nine score strangers in Midgehop; four score of them William Blaik entertained, [...]. And I believe their neighbour, Robert Bigger would be much the same. This I record once for all, for a swatch of the hospitality of the parish; for God has given this people a largeness of heart, to communicate of their substance, on these and other occasions also.
Their choosing such a moderator, so guilty of our national defections, of commissions and omissions, was a swatch of what members in the first assembly was made up of; men who had sinned away zeal and faithfulness, by wallowing in that sink and puddle of our national abominations of indulgences and toleration, and many otherwise guilty of sinful and shameful silence and unfaithfulness; [...]
gloss: A tag or other small object attached to another item as a means of identifying its owner; a tally; specifically the counterfoil of a tally.
pos: noun
tags: Northern-England
obsolete
examples: ITEM that the said Clerkis of the Brevements entre all the Taillis of the Furniunturs in the Jornall Booke in the Countynghous every day furthwith after the Brede be delyveret to the Pantre and then the Stoke [i.e., main part] of the Taill to by delyveret to the Baker and the Swache to the Pantler. … ITEM that the said Clerkis of the Brevements entre all the Taills of the Brasyantors in the Jornall Booke in the Countynghous at every tyme furthwith after the Bere be delyveret into the Buttry and then the Stoke of the Taill to be delyveret to the Brewar and the Swatche to the Butler.
A SWACHE, A Tally. N[orth] C[ountry]
Swatch, s[ubstantive] a pattern, a sample, a tally. V[ide] Ray [Collection of English Words (London, 1691)], swache.
Swatch, sb. [substantive] A wooden tally. / In the days of spinning-wheels and home-woven cloth, &c., it was customary to affix Swatches to the various rolls of cloth sent to the dyer's, which in this part of Cleveland were marked with the initials of the sender. According to the Wh. Gl. [A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood, by an Inhabitant (London, 1855)] another mode of recognition was by cutting out a portion of the Swatch, and returning it to the bringer. This, when the dyeing was complete, on being fitted into the gap left, enabled the owner to recognise his own piece of cloth, or what not.
gloss: To create a swatch, especially a sample of knitted fabric.
pos: verb
examples: Swatching is important in knitting to obtain the correct gauge.
This season, before you even think about the makeup you need, think about the beige/grey/rust/brown colors—and the clothes—you've been seeing on the preceding pages (to remind you, we've swatched some of them here).
Swatching may seem like a tedious chore when you're trying the gauge for a commercial yarn. But when you've just dyed your first skein of handpainted yarn, you'll be more than eager to see what it looks like worked up into a pattern.
When I first learned how to knit, it didn't occur to me that beads could be incorporated into knitting. […] I swatched and ripped, then swatched and ripped again—until I figured out how to get the beads to lie exactly where I wanted them to be.
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