swifter

Pluralswifters

Formsswifters, swiftering, swiftered

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of swift.

   Lighter boats are swifter in a following wind.

   Customers were promised a swifter response to their complaints.

   Note

   A one-syllable adjective like swift compares with an ending, and swifter means the same as more swift. It follows the adjective's meanings: faster in motion, as with lighter boats in a following wind, or quicker to happen, as with a swifter reply. The same spelling also names a sailor's capstan rope, an unrelated word with nothing to do with speed.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A rope that holds the bars of a capstan in their sockets while the capstan is being turned.

   Before the crew began heaving, the mate passed the swifter around the ends of the capstan bars.

   The swifter kept every bar in its socket as the men pushed the capstan around.

   Note

   On a capstan worked by hand, the swifter runs around the outer ends of the bars, so none can jump from its socket while the crew pushes them around. This sailors' word may be related to swivel, and the same name covers several other ropes aboard, as well as a verb for tightening rigging.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A rope passed lengthwise around a boat to strengthen and protect her sides.

   They rigged a swifter around the launch before towing it alongside the larger ship.

   With a swifter girdling her hull, the lifeboat took the knocks against the wharf without damage.

   Note

   Where the other rope senses serve the capstan or a mast, this one works on the hull, girdling a boat so she can be towed alongside or take the knocks of a wharf. Sailors' usage treats the boat as she, which is why the rope is said to guard her sides.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   On a sailing ship, the forward shroud of a lower mast.

   The bosun had the swifter set up tighter after the mainmast began to work in the swell.

   Spray soaked the lookout as he clung to the swifter while the ship heeled.

   Note

   A shroud is one of the heavy ropes running from high on a mast down to the ship's side to brace it sideways; a lower mast is the bottom section of a mast built in stages. As the foremost of these ropes, the swifter is the one a bosun sets up tighter when the mast begins to work in a swell.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To tighten something, such as slack standing rigging, by drawing the opposite shrouds closer together.

   Before the gale arrived, the bosun told the crew to swifter the slack shrouds.

   Once they had swiftered the rigging, the mast stopped swaying.

   Note

   The verb is regular (swifters, swiftering, swiftered) and takes the slack rigging or the shrouds as its object, as when a crew swiftered the rigging before a gale. It works on the same kind of rope as the forward shroud, drawing opposite shrouds toward each other until the mast stops swaying.

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