swale

noun

1. A low tract of moist or marshy land.

2. A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.

3. A shallow troughlike depression that's created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.

4. Bioswale, a shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope), whose purpose is to allow water time to percolate into the soil.

5. A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.

6. UKdialectalA gutter in a candle.

7. A low area (especially a marshy area between ridges)

verb

Alternative form of sweal (melt and waste away, or singe)