Forms: 4 sweryar, sueryar, swerier; 4 suerere, 4–5 swerere, 4–6 swerer, 5 swerare, 5–6 swerar, 6 Sc. sweirar, 6– swearer. [f. SWEAR v. + -ER1.] One who swears.
1. One who takes an oath; spec. one who takes or has taken an oath of allegiance; = JUROR 4; † also, a juryman; = JUROR 1. False swearer, one who swears falsely, or who breaks his oath; a perjurer. See also NON-SWEARER.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 242. A meyntenour of wrongis at louedaies, a fals suerere, a manquellere.
c. 1390–1400. R. Gloucester’s Chron. (Rolls), 8833 (MS. B.). He hem out drou, And false sueryars [v.r. sweryars, sweriers] of assyses, & dude hem ssame ynou.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 482/2. Swerare, jurator, juratrix. Ibid., 483/1. Swerare, þat ofte ys forswore, labro.
1441. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 297. The swerere, if he be pleyntif, shal losse his action.
15[?]. Adam Bel, 275, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 149. The justice with a quest of swerers That had juged Cloudesle there hanged to be.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. ii. 41. Fal. Good maid, then. Qui. Ile be sworne, as my mother was the first houre I was borne. Fal. I doe beleeue the swearer.
1635. Jackson, Creed, VIII. xviii. § 5. It must consist of swearing men, or of swearers; a new title given by some Roman regular Catholiques,… unto such Seculars of their owne profession, as will take the oath of allegiance.
1720. Swift (title), The Swearer’s-Bank: or, Parliamentary Security for Establishing a New Bank in Ireland.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. vi. Consider … how Bailly, the great Tennis-Court swearer, again swears.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. III. 447. The swearers … avoided coming to close quarters with the nonjurors on this point.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, II. iii. The watchful eyes of those forgers and false swearers.
2. One who uses profane oaths; a person addicted to profane language. Also with objective of.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 518. Euery greet swerere, nat compelled lawefully to swere.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 229. Scho … ys a claterer, a ianguler, a flyter, a curser, a swerer, and a skold.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 172, heading. Blasphemers and swearers of the name of God, and of his Saintes.
1564. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 298. Anent the sweraris of abhominabill aithis.
1597. in Maitl. Club Misc., I. 89. The sweiraris and banneris.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Ch. Porch, x. Take not his name, who made thy mouth, in vain;… the cheap swearer through his open sluce Lets his soul runne for nought.
1659. D. Pell, Impr. Sea, 103. Hee was a most damnable Swearer, and inventer of new Oaths.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 8, ¶ 3. I know the Lanes and Allies that are inhabited by common Swearers.
1800. Gilpin, Serm., II. xxvii. (R.). The swearer continues to swear: tell him of his wickedness he allows it is great, but he continues to swear on.
3. One who administers an oath to another (const. of). Also swearer-in (see SWEAR v. 20).
1597. E. S., Discov. Knts. Poste, B 2 b. I graunt he is a broker,… but he was first a bailer and a swearer.
1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, K 2 b. Provided they could be the Swearers of the Prince to do all due Allegiance to the Church.
1678. Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., II. xxiii. § 2 (1699), 246. An Act is to be extracted upon their said absence, and is to be delivered to the Swearer, or his Clerk.
1827. in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 86. I was obliged to hire a man as a ‘swearer-in.’
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. xii. I am not a swearer in of people, man.
