swarth

plural swarthes · plural swarths

1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of sward.

   Grassy swarth, close cropped by nibbling sheep.

   1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC

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   Last year's scythes flung down, and left in the half-cut swarths.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 132, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

comparative swarther · superlative swarthest

1. archaicswarthy

   a swarth complexion

   1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC

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   […] What made those holes and rents In the dock's harsh swarth leaves, bruised as to baulk All hope of greenness? […]

   1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XII

1. An apparition of a person about to die; a wraith.