• (British) IPA: /swɛə/
• (America) IPA: /swɛɚ/

swear (swears, present participle swearing; past swore, past participle sworn)

1. (ambitransitive) To take an oath, to promise.
   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwptej;view=1up;seq=5 page 01]:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

2. (ambitransitive) To use offensive, profane, or obscene language.

• See also Thesaurus:swear word
• See also Thesaurus:swear

• French: jurer
• German: schwören
• Italian: giurare
• Portuguese: jurar
• Russian: кля́сться
• Spanish: jurar

• French: jurer, gronder
• German: schimpfen, fluchen
• Italian: insultare, bestemmiare
• Portuguese: praguejar, xingar
• Russian: руга́ться
• Spanish: blasfemar, renegar, jurar, echar ternos, maldecir

swear (plural swears)

1. A swear word.
   • 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá

     You might think it funny to hear this Kanaka girl come out with a big swear. No such thing. There was no swearing in her — no, nor anger; she was beyond anger, and meant the word simple and serious.

swear (comparative swearer, superlative swearest)

1. (UK dialectal) Heavy.
2. (UK dialectal) Top-heavy; too high.
3. (UK dialectal) Dull; heavy; lazy; slow; reluctant; unwilling.
4. (UK dialectal) Niggardly.
5. (UK dialectal) A lazy time; a short rest during working hours (especially field labour); a siesta.

swear (swears, present participle swearing; past and past participle sweared)

1. (UK dialectal) To be lazy; rest for a short while during working hours.