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   swear

   /swɛː/

   verb

   • 1. make a solemn statement or promise undertaking to do something or affirming that something is the case: "Maria made me swear I would never tell anyone" Similar promisevowpromise under oathsolemnly promisepledge oneselfgive one's wordtake an oathswear an oathswear on the Biblegive an undertakingundertakeaffirmwarrantstateassertdeclareaverproclaimpronounceprofessattestguaranteedeposemake a depositionbind oneselfrare:asseverateinsistavowbe emphaticpronouncedeclareassertmaintaincontendaveremphasizestress
   • ▪ take (an oath): "he forced them to swear an oath of loyalty to him"
   • ▪ take a solemn oath as to the truth of (a statement): "I asked him if he would swear a statement to this effect"
   • 2. use language of a kind regarded as coarse, blasphemous, or otherwise unacceptable in polite or formal speech in order to express anger or other strong emotion: "Peter swore under his breath" Similar curseblasphemeutter profanitiesutter oathsbe foul-moutheduse bad/foul languagebe blasphemoustake the Lord's name in vainswear like a trooperdamninformal:cussturn the air blueeff and blindarchaic:execrate

   noun

   • 1. a word regarded as coarse, blasphemous, or otherwise unacceptable in polite or formal speech; a swear word: informal "Griffin made contact with the coach, which led to him yelling a swear back in his direction"

   Word Origin Old Englishswerian of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zweren, German schwören, also to answer.

   Derivatives

   • 1. swearer noun

   Scrabble Points: 8

   • S

     1

   • W

     4

   • E

     1

   • A

     1

   • R

     1

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