swear
Plural: swears
Verb
Verb Forms: swore, sware, sworn, swearing, swears
- To make a solemn declaration or promise, often using an oath.
- utter obscenities or profanities
- to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true
- "Before God I swear I am innocent"
- promise solemnly; take an oath
- make a deposition; declare under oath
- have confidence or faith in
- "I swear by my grandmother's recipes"
- To take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect.
- To take an oath that an assertion is true.
- To promise intensely that something is true; to strongly assert.
- To administer an oath to (a person).
- To use offensive, profane, or obscene language.
- To be lazy; rest for a short while during working hours.
Noun
- A swear word.
- A lazy time; a short rest during working hours (especially field labour); a siesta.
Adj
- Heavy.
- Top-heavy; too high.
- Dull; lazy; slow.
- Reluctant; unwilling.
- Niggardly.
Examples
- He would SWEAR his tile choices were always the best, even if the scores disagreed.
- I swear I don't know what you're talking about.
- Let the witness be sworn.
- My little brother is such a pest, I swear.
- The knight swore not to return to the palace until he had found the treasure.
- The witness swore that the person she had seen running out of the bank was a foot shorter than the accused.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English sweren, swerien, from Old English swerian (“to swear, take an oath of office”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarjan, from Proto-Germanic *swarjaną (“to speak, swear”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to swear”).
Cognate with West Frisian swarre (“to swear”), Saterland Frisian swera (“to swear”), Dutch zweren (“to swear, vow”), Low German swören (“to swear”), sweren, German schwören (“to swear”), Danish sværge, Swedish svära (“to swear”), Icelandic sverja (“to swear”), Russian свара (svara, “quarrel”). Also cognate to Albanian var (“to hang, consider, to depend from”) through Proto-Indo-European.
The original sense in all Germanic languages is “to take an oath”. The sense “to use bad language” developed in Middle English and is based on the Christian prohibition against swearing in general (cf. Matthew 5:33-37) and invoking God’s name in particular (i.e. frequent swearing was considered similar to the use of obscene words).
Synonyms
affirm, assert, aver, avow, bank, blaspheme, curse, cuss, depone, depose, imprecate, rely, swan, trust, verify, as tight as Dick's hatband, bad word, bone-idle, cheap, cheeseparing, chintzy, close, close as wax, close-fisted, curse like a pagan, curse like a sailor, curse like a trooper, curse word, cussword, dirty word, disinclined, eff and blind, eff and jeff, execrate, expletive, foul word, four-letter word, idle, illiberal, indolent, inert, lackadaisical, laze about, lazy, lither, loaf, loath, malediction, massive, massy, mean, miserable, miserly, nap, narrow-fisted, niggardly, nipcheese, oath, obscenity, overbalanced, parsimonious, peddling, penny-pinching, penny-wise, penurious, pledge, profanity, scrooge-like, scrubby, shabby, slothful, sluggish, still got one's communion money, stingy, swear, swear like a cutter, swear like a pagan, swear like a sailor, swear like a trooper, take it easy, testify, tight, tight as a tick, tight-fisted, tighter than Dick's hatband, torpid, turn the air blue, undermeal, ungenerous, ungiving, vilify, vow, vulgarity, weighty, work-shy
Scrabble Score: 8
swear: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordswear: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
swear: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary