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 whichgrass has grown;turf ;sod . - noun countable An expanse of land covered in
grass ; alawn ormeadow .
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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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On the sward is the village well, where there seems always to be a group of busy washers; and in the centre is a large school, where every educational advantage may be enjoyed, so that
Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887
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To the left of the sward is the fort, enclosed within which are the post-office and Government offices.
Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago 1887
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Here, where the sward is smooth and the space yet broad between, two converging lines of peaks are already arrayed before our eyes – one extending nearly due East and West; the other running up from the South-East to meet it.
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A few dwarf birches unfold their leaves amid the rocks; a few sub-arctic willows hang out their catkins beside the swampy runnels; the golden potentilla opens its bright flowers on slopes where the evergreen _Empetrum nigrum_ slowly ripens its glossy crow-berries; and from where the sea-spray dashes at full tide along the beach, to where the snow gleams at midsummer on the mountain-summits, the thin short sward is dotted by the minute cruciform stars of the scurvy-grass, and the crimson blossoms of the sea-pink.
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Kirkyards o 'their sward were a' howkit fu 'clean;
The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. The Songs of Scotland of the past half century Various
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The sward was the brilliantly green, luxuriant wild growth that in these islands covers every foot of earth surface.
White Shadows in the South Seas Frederick O'Brien 1900
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The moonlight on the lawn was tremulous, as if the sward were a rippling sea.
Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories Ambrose Bierce 1878
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The sward is the original sward, untouched, unploughed, centuries old.
The Open Air Richard Jefferies 1867
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In the centre of the sward was a small artificial lake, long since dried up, and adorned then with a profusion of fountains, that seemed to scatter coolness around the glowing air.
The Last of the Barons — Volume 04 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
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In the centre of the sward was a small artificial lake, long since dried up, and adorned then with a profusion of fountains, that seemed to scatter coolness around the glowing air.
The Last of the Barons — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
brtom commented on the word sward
"... 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