Obs. or arch. [f. SWORDER: see -ING2.] Martial, warlike, military.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xvi. § 68. The Duke brought with him foure hundreth men, the Earle of Salisbury fiue hundreth, the Earle of Warwicke sixe hundreth: The Dukes of Excester and Sommerset eight hundreth, the Earle of Northumberland, the Lords Egremont and Clifford fifteene hundreth. This was the fashion of that swording age.
a. 1659. Bp. Brownrig, Serm. (1674), II. ii. 20. Our Fore-fathers … lived in those Swording times, when all was in an uprore.
1860. Swinburne, Queen-Mother, I. iii. These swording-men are holier things than we.
