swaddle
Americanverb (used with object)
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swaddles,
present (3rd person singular)
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swaddled,
past participle, past
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swaddling
present participle
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to bind (an infant, especially a newborn infant) with long, narrow strips of cloth to prevent free movement; wrap tightly with clothes.
-
to wrap (anything) round with bandages.
noun
verb
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to wind a bandage round
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to wrap (a baby) in swaddling clothes
-
to restrain as if by wrapping with bandages; smother
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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swaddlesimple
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swaddlessimple
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have swaddledperfect
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has swaddledperfect
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am swaddlingprogressive
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are swaddlingprogressive
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is swaddlingprogressive
-
have been swaddlingperfect progressive
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has been swaddlingperfect progressive
Past
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swaddledsimple
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had swaddledperfect
-
was swaddlingprogressive
-
were swaddlingprogressive
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had been swaddlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of swaddle
1375–1425; late Middle English, in suadiling (gerund); akin by gradation to Middle English swethel (noun), Old English; see swathe 1, -le
Explanation
When you swaddle a baby, you wrap her in a blanket. Parents often swaddle a crying newborn to soothe and comfort her. You can swaddle anything, if you wrap it snugly in a cloth — a child might attempt to swaddle his kitten, or his toy truck — but the verb is used most often to describe the technique of calming a baby with a tightly wrapped blanket. The word swaddle has been in use since the 1300's, and it was probably a form of the Old English swaþian, related to the word swathe, which has a similar meaning to swaddle.
Vocabulary lists containing swaddle
The Bluest Eye
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Between Shades of Gray
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
She told police she had learnt how to wrap and swaddle babies on the job and had no formal training in how to put children down to sleep.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
But he’s also puckish – sylph-like and otherworldly, seductive and repellent, as likely to swaddle Sarah in her heart’s desire as he is to toss her into the belching, farting Bog of Eternal Stench.
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026
“We knew absolutely nothing about child care. We needed someone to show us: This is how you change a diaper, this is how you swaddle, this is how you wash a baby’s hair,” said Zhu.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2024
The word “overbundle,” meaning to swaddle a newborn too tightly, appeared for the first time in The Times yesterday.
From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 2023
Eva’s last child, Plum, to whom she hoped to bequeath everything, floated in a constant swaddle of love and affection, until 1917 when he went to war.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
Chasing down a comment on male-imposed expectations — and, more subtly, self-imposed ones — her macro lens swaddles everything in consumable lushness.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2024
The device includes a “sleep sack” that swaddles babies up to 6 months old who are not able to roll over consistently.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 21, 2023
There are add-ons—sleep sacks and swaddles and sheets—that only work with the Snoo.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2023
Saran Rat: A trap that swaddles rodents in clear plastic film.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 4, 2019
The puke swaddles down the pillow onto the sheet—green-gray, with flecks of orange.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
Based on those, she had thought that she had been abandoned in the street, her brother swaddled on her back with their names and ages pinned to their clothes.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
That’s part of the life of a quarterback, the expectations of toughness and stoicism, and the reliance on improvisation, even when a hand is swaddled in a cast or heavy brace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2025
Like many people, my garage and closets are littered with the detritus of modern life—from stacks of paperbacks and fancy china to a fussy tea maker, still swaddled in its box.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
"With Love, Meghan" is like a Calm app episode with a host swaddled in creamy neutral tones.
From Salon ● Mar. 5, 2025
Human forms swaddled in burial shrouds rather than bandages, dirt dusting their skin, their eyes and mouths covered with chunks of shattered pottery.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
How familiar too is the fact that his little feet have kicked free of his swaddling, revealing 10 bare toes and the underside of one foot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Video shows firefighters and emergency personnel delivering the child and swaddling the newborn in a white towel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2024
"I pulled him up, I was swaddling him and I walked him up the hill."
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2024
There will be many more: hands grasping river silt, long fingers against the weave of a blanket swaddling a newborn, hands clasped in youthful want.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
He glared at Quentin, leaning forward over the table now, looking huge and shapeless as a bear in his swaddling of garments.
From "Absalom, Absalom!" by William Faulkner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
