Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Land covered with grassy turf.
  • noun A lawn or meadow.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A skin; a covering; especially, the hide of a beast, as of a hog.
  • noun The grassy surface of land; turf; that part of the soil which is filled with the roots of grass, forming a kind of mat. When covered with green grass it is called greensward.
  • To produce sward on; cover with sward.
  • To become covered with sward.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb To produce sward upon; to cover, or be covered, with sward.
  • noun Obs. or Prov. Eng. Skin; covering.
  • noun The grassy surface of land; that part of the soil which is filled with the roots of grass; turf.
  • noun [Prov. Eng.] bacon in large fitches.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable A layer of earth into which grass has grown; turf; sod.
  • noun countable An expanse of land covered in grass; a lawn or meadow.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun surface layer of ground containing a mat of grass and grass roots

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English sweard, skin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English sweard ("skin, rind")

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Examples

Comments

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  • "... as they run slowly forward over the sward or collide and stop, one by its fellow, with a brief alert shock."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 14

    January 27, 2007