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swift

DCHP-2 (May 2013)

n. — Outdoors

a rapid current in a river.

Type: 2. Preservation — Swift in its nominal use is likely a preservation from British English, as OED-3 (s.v. "swift" (n.²6)) lists the meaning with citations dating back to 17th century England. OED-3 also marks the meaning as obsolete and rare, which is reflected in the limited number of citations from written sources.
See also COD-2, s.v. "swift" (n.3), which is marked "Cdn".

We leave the term here as a suggested Preservation in Canadian English, yet our methods we were unable to confirm COD-2's claim due to excessive noise. This meaning may be a (rare, or narrowly applied) preservation overall, with no particular Canadian dimension (as described in Dollinger 2015c).

Quotations

1882

You'll see me in the sunshine bright / That glitters in the lily white, / And in the flick'ring faint moonlight. / You'll spy me in your birthday gift, / And in the rippling river swift. / That issues from the hill-side rift.

1914

Failure is a tangled string: / Puzzle out the knotted thing! / Failure is a river swift: / Swim it! Swim, and do not drift!

1967

[Porto] is surrounded by mountains, up to 9,000 feet, and in one of the deep valleys runs the Porto River. The water coming from the snowfields far above is cold and crystal clear, the stream bed (for the river is no bigger, say, than the Humber or Credit near Toronto) is incredibly rough, littered with massive boulders as big as, even bigger sometimes, than a garage. In it are many delightful pools, rushing rapids and decidedly trout-looking swifts and swirls.

1989

More and more came as word of the river's chutes, falls and swifts spread. From near anonymity 15 years ago, the Dumoine now is one of the most popular white-water rivers in Canada for paddling aficionados.

1996

Canoe trips are designed for all skill levels and include pre-trip planning and training sessions. For example, programs for the novice are offered on the Yukon and Big Salmon Rivers. There is a sturdy current on both rivers with an occasional class II swift. The more experienced canoeist can challenge the class II and class III rapids of the South MacMillan River, which involves at least four portages. Another challenge is the Snake River, with several class II swifts and one class IV ledge.

2000

But all that doesn't matter when you are on the river attempting to match the hatch of flies so you can trick a trout that is hiding. It is the water that is fascinating and you study it trying to think like a fish, where you would be on a warm evening -- the small eddy alongside a swift, in the small pool below the log or under a dark bank where the foam from the falls collects.

2013

Along with Mr. Chester and another area guide, Dan Caldwell, the inexperienced Frasers put in at Lake Travers on a day when the water was black and smooth as obsidian stone. In perfect weather they paddled through lakes and easy swifts until, eventually, they came to the more challenging runs.

References

COD-2
Dollinger (2015c)
OED-3