Also 6 swarfe, 9 swarff; see also SWAFF2, SWARTH sb.3, SOIFE. [repr. OE. ʓeswearf, ʓesweorf, ʓeswyrf filings, or a. ON. svarf file-dust, related to sverfa to file: see SWERVE.] The wet or greasy grit abraded from a grindstone or axle; the filings or shavings of iron or steel.

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1566.  Act 8 Eliz., c. 11 § 3. No person … shall die … black, any Cappe wth Barke or Swarfe, but only wth Copperas and Gall or wth Wood [v.r. Woade] and Madder.

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1583.  Mascall, trans. Profitable Bk., D ij. Put … halfe so muche of swarfe of the grindstone.

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1640.  in Entick, London (1766), II. 174. Fileings of iron, called swarf.

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1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Axungia, the Grease or Swarf in the Axle-tree of a Wheel.

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1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Swarf, iron filings.

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1884.  H. J. Palmer in Eng. Illustr. Mag., Aug., 666/1. The knife-grinder … is saturated with the wet ‘swarff’ (powdered stone) which dyes him a deep saffron colour from head to toe.

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  Comb.  1909.  Spectator, 25 Dec., 1094/2. A swarf-stained son of ‘the wheel.’

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