Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. excellent, wonderful, delightful; thus swell article n., anything of high quality; swell crib n., a genteel house; also ironic use.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 273: Any thing remarkable for its beauty or elegance, is called a swell article; so, a swell crib, is a genteel house [etc.].
1821		Egan Life in London in Bk of Sports (1832) 7: His drag was also in unison with the rest of his character, by possessing much more of the swell look of a gentleman’s Four-in-hand, instead of a regular vehicle for public hire!
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 109: If I am not so swell, I have my heart in the right place.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London I ii: He shall have some swell clothes.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1873		W.L. Rede ‘I’m a Young Man Most Highly Respectable’ 🎵 I want to be shown to each swellified haunt.
1873		Holmes Co. Republican (OH) 15 May 1/6: The ‘swellest’ thing in the way of [...] wedding cards.
1884		‘Career of a Scapegrace’ in Leicester Chron. 17 May 12/1: I’ve found a skipper for the night, in a barn at the next farm house, a bit of a swell crib.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 July 15/2: A faultlessly attired Frenchman called at a swell residence and sent up by the maid a card bearing the name of an old French noble family.
1902		‘Billy Burgundy’ Toothsome Tales Told in Sl. 34: He leased a swell bachelor apartment.
1903		Truth (London) 18 June 1678/3: Slang terms: [...] slap-up, slick. splendiferous, stayer, stilton, stunning, swell [etc] .
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] A million bones[...] Dat's a swell bunch uv money fer a guy to hev, an’ dat ain't no mistake.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘An Unfinished Story’ in Four Million (1915) 176: Ain’t you the lucky one? Piggy’s an awful swell; and he always takes a girl to swell places. He took Blanche up to the Hoffman House [...] where they have swell music, and you see a lot of swells. You’ll have a swell time, Dulce.
1914		E. O’Neill The Movie Man in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 190: She had the swellest lamps I’ve ever seen on a dame.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine 1917 162: It’s a dirty shame after I done swell lifts for years and bulled the swellest bulls outta the Chief’s office, to get picked up by a flatfoot in harness.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 156: Some swell affair! Olive cried.
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 70: You’re the swellest little kid these old lookers ever looked at.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 384: She was a swell woman, her name was Mrs Olsen.
1930		E. Waugh Vile Bodies 250: I was with the soldiers training at Salisbury Plain. That was swell.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 270: The swellest millinery shop in Madison.
1938		L. Ortzen Down Donkey Row 120: Say, you’re swell, sweetie.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 80: He was one hell of a swell fellow.
1943		I. Wolfert Tucker’s People (1944) 32: So you want me to go and hand it over to you for a present? [...] Swell chance. You got a better chance to be Queen of England.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 98: We had a swell time last night.
1960		J.P. Donleavy Fairy Tales of N.Y. II ii: It was swell.
1962		K. Amis letter 20 June in Leader (2000) 602: What more natural than that I should be sendin a Leter to my Old yank Pall roo-kaiser what a Swel kidd he is and no Eror.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 114: The folks were in Florida ‘having a swell time’.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 52: New York is a swell place to visit around Christmas time.
1999		Indep. Rev. 4 Sept. 14: You’re looking swell.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 269: He said I was a ‘swell’ reporter.

2. (also swellish ) pertaining to the upper classes.

1812		Egan Boxiana I 5: [note] The swell tinman, hooper, was one of those ‘playthings’ of the great; and sheltered under the wings of nobility, he became pampered, insolent, and mischeivous.
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 14: Jew rampers, who are endeavouring to mace the Swell Benjamins.
1840		Flash Mirror 4: The Shades, Strand. [...] This house is called The Darkeys. Swell men, wide awake customers, and mechanics of all sorts nightly congregate here.
1857		C. Kingsley Two Years Ago I 27: ‘He’s [...] dressed in the distinguished foreigner style, with lavender kid-gloves and French boots.’ ‘Just like a swell pickpocket.’.
1859		E. Eden Semi-Detached House (1979) 231: Harcourt is ‘swell’ enough for two.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 423/2: I’ve seen the swell bosmen (farmers) buy the pills to give to the people standing about, just to hear the Crocus patter.
1869		Sportsman (London) 31 July 4/1: Notes on News [...] [I]f such on-goings again take place, they will bind the swellish defendants over to keep the peace.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 240: His ‘lay’ was St. Paul’s, and the swell churches and Exeter Hall.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 207: One evening Starlight and his two swell friends comes in.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 20: ‘Muggins [...] says dat he was onc’t de boxin’ teacher fer a swell at’letic club’.
1899–1900		H. Lawson ‘The Babies in the Bush’ in Roderick (1972) 407: The table was set for tea, and set in rather a swell style.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 356: The blacksmith had chatted about the tenants. They were all rich, and ‘swell’.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 58: I’ve got to make a swell call in Princeton to-morrow.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 785: Very likely he’ll be putting up at one of the swell hotels.
1931		D. Runyon ‘The Old Doll’s House’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 62: He loves to show off his shape in a tuxedo to the swell dolls.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 124: Pretty soon Mrs. Moriarty who empties the bedpans down at the VA hospital is after you to get a full scholarship for her idiot daughter at some swell joint.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 127: His astrakhan-collared [...] dressing gown lent him the air of the swell boxer he once had been – Public Schools bantamweight champion.

3. showy, ostentatious, fashionable, usu. as regards dress; also as adv., fashionably; thus swell mollisher, a very well-dressed woman etc.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 273: Any thing remarkable for its beauty or elegance, is called a swell article; so, [...] a swell mollisher, an elegantly dressed woman.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 94: This very ‘swell’ member of the swell mob was transported for robbing his Majesty’s mail.
1854		E.R. Sullivan Bungalow or Tent 35: His use of the vernacular was interlarded with slang [...] He would [...] ask me if I wanted my ‘swell’ coat, when going out to dinner.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act III: Lark, lush, and a latch-key — a swell rig-out, and lots of ready in the pockets — a drag at Epsom and a champagne lunch on the hill!
1889		J.K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat 45: We had been swearing for a whole week about the thing in an ordinary, middle-class way, but this was a swell affair.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 38: She was going to be Benevolent and be Dead Swell at the Same Time.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 84: The swell eastern fairies may tie her, but they’ll never beat her for opera garb.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ in Beef, Iron and Wine 1917 152: The firs’ good job I gets away wit’ is right in broad daylight in front of a swell hotel.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 99: ‘And remember, we are in the swellest joint in town!’.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 302: I’m not strong for eating in swell places.
1937		Jennings & Madge May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 3:8: A very swell car rolled up containing 4 people.
1952		in C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 79: Swell theaters where the graft is good.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 131: You used to be one of the swellest dressed guys that lived in old New York.