Other forms: swaddling, swaddled
To swaddle is to wrap a baby tightly in cloth. Swaddle the baby, swaddled in blankets, a swaddling cloth.
It works by reproducing the confinement of the womb and stopping the startle reflex that wakes a newborn. It fell out of fashion for a century and came back, with the caution that a swaddled baby must be laid on its back.
1verbswaddleTo wrap a baby tightly in cloth.
“The midwife showed us how to swaddle the baby in a light blanket.”
swaddle is a wrapping.
Old English swathul names a swaddling band, from a root meaning to bind.
Middle English
swathlen — to bind; swaddle
English, today
swaddle
Built from
From Middle English swathlen (“to bind; swaddle”), from Middle English swathel, swethel, from Old English swaþul, swæþel, sweþel, sweoþol (“swaddling cloth”), equivalent to swathe + le, the word then underwent th-stopping (its voiced th became a d). Cognate with Middle Dutch swadel (“swaddling; bandage”), Old High German swedili (“poultice”), Old English sweþian, besweþian (“to wrap; swaddle”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA