Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SWAY, v.i.

1. To be drawn to one side by weight; to lean. A wail sways to the west. The balance sways on our part. – Bacon. [This sense seems to indicate that this word and swag, are radically one.]
2. To have weight or influence. The example of sundry churches … doth sway much. – Hooker.
3. To bear rule; to govern. Must thou sway'd as kings should do. – Shak.
4. In seamen's language, to hoist; particularly applied to the lower yards and to the topmost yards, &c.

SWAY, v.t. [D. zwaaijen, to turn, to wield, to swing, to sway. This word is probably formed on the root of weigh, wave, Sax. wæg, weg, and swag, and probably swing is written for swig, and is of the same family; Ice. sweigia; Sw. sviga.]

1. To move or wave; to wield with the hand; as, to sway the scepter.
2. To bias; to cause to lean or incline to one side. Let not temporal advantages sway you from the line of duty. The king was swayed by his council from the course he intended to pursue. As bowls run true by being made / On purpose false, and to be sway'd. – Hudibras.
3. To rule; to govern; to influence or direct by power and authority, or by moral force. This was the race / To sway the world, and land and sea subdue. – Dryden. She could not sway her house. – Shak. Take heed lest passion sway / Thy judgment to do aught which else free will / Would not admit. – Milton.

SWAY-ED, pp.

Wielded; inclined to one side; ruled; governed; influenced; biased.

SWAY-ING, n.

Swaying of the back, among beasts, is a kind of lumbago, caused by a fall or by being overloaded. – Cyc.

SWAY-ING, ppr.

Wielding; causing to lean; biasing ruling.

SWEAL, v.i. [Sax. swelan; sometimes written swale. In America, it is pronounced as written, sweal or sweel.]

1. To melt and run down, as the tallow of a candle; to waste away without feeding the flame.
2. To blaze away.

SWEAL-ING, ppr.

Melting and wasting away.

SWEAR, v.i. [pret. swore, (formerly sware;) pp. sworn. Sax. swerian, swerigan; Goth. swaran; D. zweeren; G. schwören; Sw. sväria, to swear, and svara, to answer; Dan. sværger, to swear, and svarer, to answer. The latter seems to be from svarrer, to turn, Eng. veer. Swear seems to be allied to aver and the L. assevero, and to belong to the root Wr.]

1. To affirm or utter a solemn declaration, with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed. Ye shall not swear by my name falsely. – Lev. xix. But I say to you, swear not at all. – Matth. v.
2. To promise upon oath. Jacob said, swear to me this day; and he swore to him. – Gen. xxv.
3. To give evidence on oath; as, to swear to the truth of a statement. He swore that the prisoner was not present at the riot.
4. To be profane; to practice profaneness. Certain classes of men are accustomed to swear. For men to swear is sinful, disreputable and odious; but for females or ladies to swear, appears more abominable and scandalous.

SWEAR, v.t.

1. To utter or affirm with a solemn appeal to God for the truth of the declaration; as, to swear on oath. [This seems to have been the primitive use of swear; that is, to affirm.]
2. To put to an oath; to cause to take an oath; as, to swear witnesses in court; to swear a jury; the witness has been sworn; the judges are sworn into office.
3. To declare or charge upon oath; as, to swear treason against a man.
4. To obtest by an oath. Now by Apollo, king, thou swear'st thy gods in vain. – Shak. To swear the peace against one, to make oath that one is under the actual fear of death or bodily harm from the person; in which case the person must find sureties of the peace.

SWEAR-ER, n.

1. One who swears; one who calls God to witness for the truth of his declaration.
2. A profane person. Then the liars and swearers are fools. – Shak.

SWEAR-ING, n.

1. The act or practice of affirming on oath. Swearing in court is lawful.
2. Profaneness. All swearing not required by some law, or in conformity with law, is criminal. False swearing or perjury is a crime of a deep dye.

SWEAR-ING, ppr.

1. Affirming upon oath; uttering a declaration, with an appeal to God for the truth of it.
2. Putting upon oath; causing to swear.

SWEAT, n. [swet; Sax. swat; D. zweet; G. schweiss; Dan. sveed; Sw. svett; L. sudor.]

1. The fluid or sensible moisture which is excreted from the skin of an animal. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. – Gen. iii.
2. Labor; toil; drudgery. – Milton.
3. Moisture evacuated from any substance; as, the sweat of hay or grain in a mow or stack.

SWEAT, v.i. [swet. pret. and pp. sweat or sweated. Swot is obsolete. Sax. swætan; Sw. svetta; Dan. sveeder; D. zweeten; G. schwitzen; L. sudo; Fr. suer.]

1. To excrete sensible moisture from the skin. Horses sweat; oxen sweat little or not at all.
2. To toil; to labor; to drudge. He'd have the poets sweat. – Waller.
3. To emit moisture, as green plants in a heap.

SWEAT, v.t. [swet.]

1. To emit or suffer to flow from the pores; to exsude. For him the rich Arabia sweats her gums. – Dryden.
2. To cause to excrete moisture from the skin. His physicians attempted to sweat him by the most powerful sudorific.

SWEAT'ER, n.

One that causes to sweat.

SWEAT'I-LY, adv. [swetily.]

So as to be moist with sweat.

SWEAT'I-NESS, n.

The state of being sweaty or moist with sweat.

SWEAT'ING, ppr.

1. Excreting moisture from the skin; throwing out moisture; exsuding.
2. Causing to emit moisture from the skin.

SWEAT'ING-BATH, n.

A sudatory; a bath for producing sensible sweat; a hypocaust or stove. – Cyc.

SWEAT'ING-HOUSE, n.

A house for sweating persons in sickness. – Cyc.

SWEAT'ING-I-RON, n.

A kind of knife or a piece of a sythe, used to scrape off sweat from horses. – Cyc.

SWEAT'ING-ROOM, n.

1. A room for sweating persons.
2. In rural economy, a room for sweating cheese and carrying off the superfluous juices. – Cyc.

SWEAT'ING-SICK-NESS, n.

A febril epidemic disease which prevailed in some countries of Europe, but particularly in England, in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its first appearance was in the army of the earl of Richmond, afterward Henry VII., on his landing at Milford Haven, in 1485. The invasion of the disease was sudden, and usually marked by a local affection producing the sensation of intense heat, afterward diffusing itself over the whole body, and immediately followed by profuse sweating, which continued through the whole course of the disease or till death, which often happened in a few hours. – Cyc.

SWEAT'Y, a.

1. Moist with sweat; as, a sweaty skin; a sweaty garment.
2. Consisting of sweat. No noisy whiffs or sweaty streams. – Swift.
3. Laborious; toilsome; as, the sweaty forge. Prior.