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Sword   /sɔrd/   Listen
noun
Sword  n.  
1.
An offensive weapon, having a long and usually sharp-pointed blade with a cutting edge or edges. It is the general term, including the small sword, rapier, saber, scimiter, and many other varieties.
2.
Hence, the emblem of judicial vengeance or punishment, or of authority and power. "He (the ruler) beareth not the sword in vain." "She quits the balance, and resigns the sword."
3.
Destruction by the sword, or in battle; war; dissension. "I came not to send peace, but a sword."
4.
The military power of a country. "He hath no more authority over the sword than over the law."
5.
(Weaving) One of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended.
Sword arm, the right arm.
Sword bayonet, a bayonet shaped somewhat like a sword, and which can be used as a sword.
Sword bearer, one who carries his master's sword; an officer in London who carries a sword before the lord mayor when he goes abroad.
Sword belt, a belt by which a sword is suspended, and borne at the side.
Sword blade, the blade, or cutting part, of a sword.
Sword cane, a cane which conceals the blade of a sword or dagger, as in a sheath.
Sword dance.
(a)
A dance in which swords are brandished and clashed together by the male dancers.
(b)
A dance performed over swords laid on the ground, but without touching them.
Sword fight, fencing; a combat or trial of skill with swords; swordplay.
Sword grass. (Bot.) See Gladen.
Sword knot, a ribbon tied to the hilt of a sword.
Sword law, government by the sword, or by force; violence.
Sword lily. (Bot.) See Gladiolus.
Sword mat (Naut.), a mat closely woven of yarns; so called from a wooden implement used in its manufacture.
Sword shrimp (Zool.), a European shrimp (Pasiphaea sivado) having a very thin, compressed body.
Sword stick, a sword cane.
To measure swords with one. See under Measure, v. t.
To put to the sword. See under Put.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sword" Quotes from Famous Books



... occupied the capital, and marched forward to the border; not merely to complete the subjection of the southern provinces, but with the flattering hope of pouring his victorious army into England, and bringing to the support of Charles the sword of his ...
— Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. II (of 3) • Walter Scott

... nevertheless are very mild to mortals. Though Enguerrand is the best pistol-shot in Paris, and Raoul the best fencer, the first is so good-tempered that you would be a brute to quarrel with him, the last so true a Catholic, that if you quarrelled with him you need not fear his sword. He would not die in the committal of what the Church ...
— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... that he heard one night from a certain of his nocturnal reciters[FN5] that among women are those who are doughtier than the doughtiest men and prower of prowess, and that among them are some who will engage in fight singular with the sword and others who beguile the quickest-witted of Walis and baffle them and bring down on them all manner of miseries; wherefore said the Soldan, "I would lief hear this of their legerdemain from one of those who have had to ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... certain. * * * Should it prove otherwise we shall know how to fulfil our duty without shrinking and without weakness"—this utterance was itself an official international threat, with the hand on the sword hilt. The phrase, La Prusse cane (Prussia climbs down), served in the press to illustrate the range of the parliamentary proceedings of July 6 and 7; which, in my feeling, rendered all compliance incompatible with ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. X. • Kuno Francke

... rain—perspiration was repressed, and inflammatory diseases followed: the licentiousness, and occasional want of the few last years, generated disorders, which a cold brought to a crisis. Among savages, the blanket has sometimes slain more than the sword: it destroyed the Indian of North America, and even threatened the New Zealander with a similar fate.[24] The abundant supply of food, and which followed destitution, tended to the same result: it was a different diet. The habits of the chase were superseded, and perhaps discouraged: ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West


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