swad

noun

1. A bunch, clump, mass

   “"[…]Ye'd oughta see th' swad a' chil'ren I've got, an' all like that."”

2. (obsolete, slang)A crowd; a group of people.
3. (obsolete)A boor, lout.

   “Sham’st thou not coistrel, loathsome dunghill swad.”

   “There was one busy fellow was their leader, / A blunt, squat swad, but lower than yourself.”

   “Country swains, and silly swads.”

4. A thin layer of refuse at the bottom of a seam.
5. (Northern, UK, dialectal, obsolete)A cod, or pod, as of beans or peas.

   “They must bee gathered in the decrease of the moone, presently vpon their being ripe, for else they drie vp and fall out of their swads:”

   “... the Bean is not seen till first it be unhusk'd, and that its swad or hull be shaled, and pilled from off it : […]”

   “Swad, in the north, is a peascod shell — thence used for an empty, shallow-headed fellow.”

   “... it is the stem and leaf that is wanted , more than the swad or grain.”

   “It is a fruit growing on a tree, a species of acacia. "The pods hang down, and only the swad is used for feeding cattle." Why , then , does the Chancellor of the Exchequer tax locust beans as a kind of wheat? Have his Park-lane friends warned him against manna?”