Brewer's: Swing

(Captain). The name assumed by certain persons who sent threatening letters to those who used threshing machines: (1830-1833.) The tenor of these letters was as follows:

Sir, if you do not lay by your threshing machine, you will hear from Swing. Excesses of the Luddites and Swing.

The Times.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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