Also 7 sword, soard(e. [f. SWARD sb.]
1. intr. To form a sward; to become covered with grassy turf.
1610. Folkingham, Feudigr., I. xi. 35. A loose and light Sand swords slow.
1644. G. Plattes, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 236. [Ground] that … will not sward again, or gather a good head of grass, for the first, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 years, when laid down after Ploughing.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv., xv. 84. It hath one halfe yeare more to Soard in.
a. 1735. Earl Haddington, Forest Trees (1765), 45. The ground, immediately after corn, is many years before it swards.
2. trans. To cover with a sward; chiefly pass. to be covered with grass or herbage.
1610. Folkingham, Feudigr., IV. Concl. 87. The Soile is a sandy Clay of 18 Inches Crust close sworded.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv., 32. How to level Land, and the suddainest way to Soarde it.
1760. Washington, Diary, 7 March, Writ. 1834, II. 513. The ground being well swarded over, and very heavy ploughing.
1785. trans. Beckford’s Vathek, 23. A high mountain, whose sides were swarded with wild thyme and basil.
1841. Penny Cycl., XX. 33/1. Hedge-banks may be improved … by being swarded.
1888. Stevenson, Black Arrow, 75. It was a pillared grove … open and smoothly swarded.
a. 1904. A. Adams, Log Cowboy, v. 56. The prairies were swarded with grass and flowers.
