Sward

Pronunciation

• IPA: /swɔː(ɹ)d/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(r)d

Alternative forms

• swarth
• swart
• swerd

Origin

From Old English sweard ("skin, rind")

A glossary: or, Collection of words, phrases, names, and allusions ..., Volume 2 by Robert Nares,James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps,Thomas Wright (London, 1888), p. 855

Full definition of sward

Noun

1. (uncountable) A layer of earth into which grass has grown; turf; sod.
• Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)The sward was trim as any garden lawn.
2. (countable) An expanse of land covered in grass; a lawn or meadow.
• 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
• 1890: Arthur Conan Doyle, ''The White Company...the trees began to thin and the sward to spread out onto a broad, green lawn, where five cows lay in the sunshine...
• 1918: Booth Tarkington, ''The Magnificent AmbersonsOnly 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.
3. (obsolete, UK, dialect) Skin; covering.

Synonyms

• (earth into which grass has grown): grass, turf, sod
• (land covered with grass): clearing, field, greensward, lawn, meadow, yard

Derived terms

• greensward

Anagrams

• draws
• wards