1) A large shallow basket, woven from oak laths and characteristic of Cumbria (CDD).
1395 pro ij cannis et j sqwill, Whitby
1562 In the loft, barrells, swills, stolles … with other woodde gere, Kendal. In Yorkshire contexts it may occasionally have been a shallow tub: 1658 In the Milkehouse 5 milke bowles, 1 swill, 2 kitts, 3 shelves, Beckwithshaw.
2) A verb which related to the movement of water and other liquids.
1747 a violent torent of rain ... sweel’d the waters over where the bridges are, one of them entirely drove down, Kirkby Malzeard. Regionally it described the practice of spreading liquid manure over the fields via a system of shallow channels: 1783 I worked in the fields Shreading, Swilling, &c, Ovenden. Some spellings are similar to those of ‘sweal’.