• IPA: /swɔː(ɹ)d/

sward

1. (uncountable) A layer of earth into which grass has grown; turf; sod.
   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 2024748 ↗, prologue:

     The sward was trim as any garden lawn.

2. (countable) An expanse of land covered in grass; a lawn or meadow.
   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175 ↗:

     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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20141009081751/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w 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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20141009081751/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w 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, UK, dialect) Skin; covering.

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

• French: gazon
• Italian: erba, zolla
• Russian: дёрн

• French: pelouse
• Italian: prato
• Russian: газо́н

sward (swards, present participle swarding; past and past participle swarded)

1. (transitive) To cover with sward.

sward (plural swards)

1. (Philippines) A homosexual man.

1. Surname