subs. (colloquial).—An oath; a CUSS (q.v.): also SWEAR-WORD. Also (colloquial) TO SWEAR AT (said of anything incongruous): e.g., ‘His frock coat SWORE at his bowler-hat; TO SWEAR LIKE A LORD (TROOPER, etc.) = to volley oaths, TO MAKE THE AIR BLUE (q.v.); TO SWEAR THROUGH A NINE INCH PLANK (nautical) = to back up any lie (C. RUSSELL: ‘a favourite expression of Lord Nelson when referring to American skippers’).
1531. T. ELYOT, The Book named the Governour (1834), 87. He that sweareth deep, SWEARETH LIKE A LORD.
1651. CARTWRIGHT, The Ordinary [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), x. 295].
| Gull’d by my SWEAR, by my SWEAR, gull’d. | |
| Ibid., iv. 4. | |
| I lose the taking, by my SWEAR, of taking | |
| As much, whiles that I am receiving this. |
1672. RAY, Proverbs, ‘Proverbial Phrases.’ ‘He’ll SWEAR through a nine inch board, a dagger out of sheath, the devil out of hell, ’till he’s black in the face.’
1756. FOOTE, The Englishman returned from Paris. [To] SWEAR LIKE A TROOPER.
1887. St. James’s Gazette, 4 June. It is a dreadful thing to say, but I felt that if I didn’t utter a big SWEAR at that moment something would happen.
1888. Electrical Review, 3 March, 11. There has been in the past an immense quantity of scolding, occasionally a SWEAR WORD.
1889. C. D. WARNER, Comments on Kentucky, in Harper’s Magazine, lxxviii. Jan., 258. What is new in it … may ‘SWEAR’ AT the old furniture and the delightful old portraits.
