/swɔːd/, /swɔɹd/
OriginThe noun is derived from Middle English sward (“rind; skin; calloused skin; leather strap; sod, turf”) [and other forms], from Old English sweard, swearð (“rind; skin”), from Proto-Germanic *swarduz (“rind; tough skin; turf”); further etymology unknown.
The verb is derived from the noun.
- uncountableEarth which grass has grown into the upper layer of; greensward, sod, turf; (countable) a portion of such earth.
“His eyes he op'nd, and beheld a field, / Part arable and tilth, whereon were Sheaves / New reapt, the other part ſheep-walks and foulds; / Ith' midſt an Altar as the Land-mark ſtood / Ruſtic, of graſſ”
“There is a dale in Ida, lovelier / Than any in old Ionia, beautiful / With emerald slopes of sunny sward, that lean / Above the loud glenriver, which hath worn / A path thro' steepdown granite walls b”
“The road wound through the greenest sward, in which trees of venerable growth were relieved by a profusion of shrubs, and flowers gathered into baskets intertwined with creepers, or blooming from Etru”
- countableAn expanse of land covered in grass; a lawn or meadow.
“It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind t”
“[O]f a sudden the trees began to thin and the sward to spread out onto a broad, green lawn, where five cows lay in the sunshine and droves of black swine wandered unchecked.”
“Only where George stood was there left a sward as of yore; the great, level, green lawn that served for both the Major's house and his daughter's.”
- countable, obsoleteThe upper layer of the ground, especially when vegetation is growing on it.
“The roots of the Apple-tree, Olive, and Cypreſſe, lie very ebbe, and creepe hard under the ſourd of the ground.”
- countable, dialectalThe rind of bacon or pork; also, the outer covering or skin of something.
- PhilippinesA homosexual man.
- transitiveTo cover (ground, etc.) with sward.
- intransitiveOf ground, etc.: to be covered with sward; to develop a covering of sward.
“[Land...] will not sward again […]”
“[…] for the ground immediately after corn is many years before it swards, and […]”
“... with soil of a similar character, several fields have been laid down and ploughed up again under the old plea that they will not sward.”
Formsswards(plural) · swarth(alternative) · swart(alternative) · swerd(alternative) · swards(present, singular, third-person) · swarding(participle, present) · swarded(participle, past) · swarded(past) · Swards(plural)