Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A tool used in bending or shaping cold metal.
  • noun A stamp or die for marking or shaping metal with a hammer.
  • noun A swage block.
  • transitive verb To bend or shape by or as if by using a swage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • See suage.
  • To shape by means of a swage. Also swedge.
  • noun A tool or die for imparting a given shape to metal when laid hot on an anvil, or in a stamping-press or drop-press, or between rolls.
  • noun A similar tool used for bending or twisting cold metal slightly, as for setting saws by bending one tooth at a time to the proper angle, or, in the making of vessels of tin-plate, for bending the metal slightly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A tool, variously shaped or grooved on the end or face, used by blacksmiths and other workers in metals, for shaping their work, whether sheet metal or forging, by holding the swage upon the work, or the work upon the swage, and striking with a sledge.
  • noun a perforated block of iron, having grooved sides and adapted for use in heading bolts and swaging objects of large size.
  • verb obsolete See assuage.
  • transitive verb To shape by means of a swage; to fashion, as a piece of iron, by forcing it into a groove or mold having the required shape.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A tool, used by blacksmiths and other metalworkers, for cold shaping of a metal item.
  • verb To bend or shape through use of a swage.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb form metals with a swage
  • noun a tool used to thicken or spread metal (the end of a bar or a rivet etc.) by forging or hammering or swaging

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, ornamental border, from Old French souage.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French souage.

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Examples

  • They want a bore that looks like a hollow log or a sewing needle swage.

    You Always Hurt the Gun You Love 2008

  • Yes | No | Report from losy my zero wrote 1 year 42 weeks ago rock chuck bullet swage by fred huntingdon.

    Useful? You Bet Your R.A.S.S. 2008

  • He heats the first rivet, then drives it through the brace until it flattens against the round-bottomed swage.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

  • Next, using glancing blows on the end of the fullered rod, he begins to upset the end that will fit into the swage die.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

  • The striker brings down the hammer on the swage-once, twice.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

  • "Going to be a long winter -" Yarrl lifts the tongs and slides the partly forged clamp from the bricks into the fire, reaching for the midsized swage as he does so.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

  • A quick stroke flattens the bottom side against the swage, and Dorrin follows up with another set of glancing strokes, first on the top, and then on the bottom.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

  • When the cross-section matches the template, he sets the circular die-almost like a round-bottom swage with a square base-into the anvil's hardie hole, and places the metal in the forge once more.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

  • In time he removes the piece and places it in the end curve in the swage block.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

  • Using the block is harder than using a hammer-driven swage, but is the only way he can shape the iron single-handedly.

    The Magic Engineer Modesitt, L. E. 1994

Comments

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  • "Refers to a surface that might have been developed using a swage, a tool of metal-workers."

    - "Tumble What? The strange and baffling world of car design-speak explained." Automobile, August 2007: 125.

    August 25, 2007

  • Alternative meaning: Derived from the verb assuage, meaning to ease or alleviate, swage is an old British dialect word that can be used to mean to take in food, to let your stomach settle, or, most importantly, "to relax after a good meal." A swager, incidentally, is a long, thirst-quenching drink.

    January 9, 2018

  • The poets of old made a song

    With anvil and hammer and tong,

    Now rap’s all the rage

    That’s stamped by a swage

    So writers need never be strong.

    January 4, 2019