DCHP-1 Online

siwash ((v.)) [< n.] Pacific Coast and Northwest

• 1a v. travel light, establishing siwash camps or sleeping in the open without prepared shelter.

  See also: siwash camp  siwashing  

  • 1938  (1950)  With fresh memories of bitter cold nights when we had siwashed under trees, I dressed for this trip more warmly.
  • 1951  When I used to siwash up here winters with the mail, I had to break out a new snowshow trail practically every trip

• 1b v. siwash it, See quote.

  • 1931  I'll not try to put up my tent. I've got a good warm bed [bedroll], and I'll Siwash it for the rest of the night, and put up the tent later. Good night!

• 2a v. Slang prohibit from obtaining liquor; put on the Indian list.

  See also: Indian list  interdict ((v.)) (def. 2)  interdict list  

  • This term now applies to any person placed on the interdict list, q.v., in B.C.

  • 1922  [The Siwashes are Indians in British Columbia. They can't get whiskey because they are Indians.]
  • 1948  The Dasher had been siwashed for a period, and . . . he had hidden supplies in various places so that he would have something to fall back on that was more palatable than painkiller or Jamaica ginger.
  • 1957  "Hit's against the law ter ell wisky to the Siwashes . . . So wen a wite man gets so's no one will sell him drinks--well folks say e's been siwashed.

• 2b v. deny access to prohibited drugs.

  • 1922  He always gave it [morphine] to me in the end, but I have had to get on my knees first. . . . Tai told them to Siwash me.

• 2c v. See quote.

  • 1965  Twenty years ago when a white man was struck off the voters' list he was being turned into an Indian--"siwashed" they call it.

• 3 v. Lumbering, Slang run (a cable, line, etc.) around anything but a proper block.

  See also: Siwash fashion (1938 quote)  Siwash ((adj.)) (def. 2a)  

  • 1942  The slumber of ages silence was broken By cursing and laughter of loggers a jokin', And fallin' of pines, and snappin' of lines, As "haulback" that's "siwashed" pulsingly whines.
  • 1943  In ground lead logging, at first the main line rubbed or siwashed around a stump in order to spool it onto the drum, but when the bull block was invented, ground lead logging prospered by leaps and bounds, and its inventor, "Tommy" Moore, was crowned with a wreath of salal and made immortal among loggers who know their stuff.