swike

From Middle English swiken, from Old English swīcan (“to wander, depart, cease from, yield, give way, fail, fall short, be wanting, abandon, desert, turn traitor, deceive, rebel”), from Proto-West Germanic *swīkwan, from Proto-Germanic *swīkwaną, *swīkaną (“to dodge, swerve, avoid, betray”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweyg- (“to turn, move around, wander, swing”).

• IPA^(key): /swaɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪk

swike (third-person singular simple present swikes, present participle swiking, simple past swoke, past participle swicken)

1. (transitive, dialectal or obsolete) To deceive, cheat; betray.
2. (transitive, dialectal or obsolete) To stop, cease.

swike (comparative more swike, superlative most swike)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) Deceitful; treacherous.

swike (plural swikes)

1. (dialectal, chiefly Scotland) Deceit; treachery.
2. (dialectal or obsolete) A deceiver; betrayer, traitor.
   • 1848, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Harold, the Last of the Saxons:

     The Saxon Chronicle contradicts itself as to Algar's outlawry, stating in one passage that he was outlawed without any kind of guilt, and in another that he was outlawed as swike, or traitor, and that he made a confession of it before all the men there gathered.

3. (dialectal or obsolete) A hiding place; den; cave.

• Weiks, Wikes, kwise, wikes

From Zhangzhou Hokkien 水雞／水鸡 (súi-ke, “frog”, literally “water; river + fowl; chicken”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈswike]
• Hyphenation: swi‧ké

swiké (plural swike-swike)

1. (cooking) swikee, a frog leg cuisine

• “swike” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.