Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SWARM'ING, ppr. [of Swarm. See the Verb.]

SWART, or SWARTH, a. [Sax. swart, sweart; Sw. svart; Dan. sværte; G. schwarz; D. zwart.]

1. Being of a dark hue; moderately black; tawny. A nation strange with visage swart. – Spenser. [I believe swart and swarth are never used in the United States, certainly not in New England. Swarthy is a common word.]
2. Gloomy; malignant. [Not in use.] – Milton.

SWART, v.t.

To make tawny. – Brown.

SWARTH, or SWAIRTH, n.

An apparition. [Not used in New England.]

SWARTH'I-LY, adv. [from swarthy.]

Duskily; with a tawny hue.

SWARTH'I-NESS, n.

Tawniness; a dusky or dark complexion.

SWARTH'Y, a. [See Swart.]

1. Being of a dark hue or dusky complexion; tawny. In warm climates, the complexion of men is universally swarthy or black. The Moors, Spaniards and Italians are more swarthy than the French, Germans and English. Their swarthy hosts would darken all our plains. – Addison.
2. Black; as, the swarthy African.

SWART'I-NESS, n.

A tawny color. – Sherwood.

SWART'ISH, a.

Somewhat dark or tawny.

SWART'Y, a.

Swarthy; tawny. – Burton.

SWARVE, v.i.

To swerve. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

SWASH, or SWASH'Y, a.

Soft, like fruit too ripe. [Local.] – Pegge.

SWASH, n.¹

An oval figure, whose moldings are oblique to the axis of the work. – Moxon. [A cant word. Johnson.]

SWASH, n.²

1. A blustering noise; a vaporing. [Not in use or vulgar.]
2. Impulse of water flowing with violence. In the southern states of America, swash or swosh is a name given to a narrow sound or channel of water lying within a sand bank, or between that and the shore. Many such are found on the shores of the Carolinas.

SWASH, v.i. [D. zwetsen, to boast.]

To bluster; to make a great noise; to vapor or brag. [Not in use.] – Shak.

SWASH'-BUCK-LER, n.

A sword-player; a bully or braggadocio. [Not in use.] – Milton.

SWASH'ER, n.

One who makes a blustering show of valor or force of arms. [Not in use.] – Shak.

SWAT, or SWATE, v.i.

To sweat. [Obs.] – Chaucer.

SWATCH, n.

A swath. [Not in use.] – Tusser.

SWATH, n. [Sax. swathe, a track, a border or fringe, a band; D. zwaad; G. schwaden.]

1. A line of grass or grain cut and thrown together by the sythe in mowing or cradling.
2. The whole breadth or sweep of a sythe in mowing or cradling; as, a wide swath. – Farmers.
3. A band or fillet. They wrapped me in a hundred yards of swarth. – Guardian.

SWATHE, n.

A bandage.

SWATHE, v.t.

1. To bind with a band, bandage or rollers; as, to swathe a child.
2. To bind or wrap. Their children are never swathed or bound about with any thing when first born. – Abbot.

SWATH-ED, pp.

Bound with a bandage or rollers.

SWATH-ING, ppr.

Binding or wrapping.

SWAY, n.

1. The swing or sweep of a weapon. To strike with huge two-handed sway. – Milton.
2. Any thing moving with bulk and power. Are not you mov'd when all the sway of earth / Shakes like a thing unfirm? – Shak.
3. Preponderation; turn or cast of balance. Expert / When to advance, or stand, or turn the sway of battle. – Milton.
4. Power exerted in governing; rule; dominion; control. When vice prevails and impious men bear sway, / The post of honor is a private station. – Addison.
5. Influence; weight or authority that inclines to one side; as, the sway of desires. All the world is subject to the sway of fashion.