English

Alternative forms

• swarth
• swart
• swerd

Noun

sward ‎(plural swards)

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, chapter1:

     It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. 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 Ambersons

     Only 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, Britain, dialect) Skin; covering.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• greensward

Translations

Anagrams

• draws
• wards

References

1. ↑ 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