Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To fail; falter; hesitate.
- To fear.
- n. Doubt; hesitation; perplexity; a state of irresolute wavering.
- n. A fright.
- n. A perspiration.
- To burn; scorch.
- To emit a whirring sound; whizz.
Wiktionary
- v. To be indecisive or in a state of confusion; to dither.
WordNet 3.0
- n. agitation resulting from active worry
Etymologies
- Origin unknown. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“A man in a swither is a man half absent, as poor a fighter as he is indifferent a lover; the enemy and the girl will escape him ere he has throttled the doubt at his heart There's one test to my mind for all the enterprises of man -- are they well contrived and carried to a good conclusion?”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
“They found the office in a "swither," as Harry said, over the revelations of fraud that were coming to light every day -- book-keeper, clerk, and timber-checker having all been in conspiracy to defraud the company.”
“The wind smells of the Wear, sprays rain on the wall and growls with an insistent swither.”
Make This My Default Location (I) : Ange Mlinko : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“Oh, they'll shift and swither and plot, and ye'll be approached (discreetly) with more hints and ploys and assurances of good will than ye can count.”
“Then, very abruptly, fixing his eyes on me, all of a swither, with my milk-stained cap in my hand,”
“He seemed in a swither as to whether I was a fit confidant or not in such a matter, but at last would appear to decide in my favour.”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
“And as ill-luck had it, his ill counsel found me on the swither, as yours did when”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
“Strong cruel brutes, they did not swither a moment, but both leaped at M'Iver's throat.”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
“Good night to you, Sir Churchman; I'm in nae swither whether I would change places wi 'ye the night, but weemen are daft craturs, poor things, and I've had my day.”
“Meanwhile the big mother moose was thrashing around in the bushes in a terrible swither, calling her calf to come.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘swither’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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scots words
gowk, wellkenspeckled, dowie, crivvens, clashmaclavers, kludgie, perjink, puddock, well-kenspeckled, gaberlunzie, wheesht, thrawn and 65 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Under The Kilt
Anything related to Scottish culture, cuisine, language, history and so on. Does not include Gaelic words unless acceptable (roughly speaking!) in a wider sense.
brae, machair, loch, burn, inverness, shieling, camanachd, shinty, diddy, bhoy, ghillie, brownie and 393 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
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Warp, Woof, Wimble
My favorite words.
prurient, locution, mondegreen, vaunted, lugubrious, larine, warp, woof, wimble, ineffable, pyknic, sodden and 114 more...
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Face Place ㋡
Facial expressions, methods for determining emotional states, and general terms for passionate emotional states.
I've put specific-emotion words in these other lists of mine:
Hap...perfervid, vehement, demonstrative, fervent, torrid, frantic, agog, choler, moue, histrionic, dacrygelosis, verklempt and 92 more...
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Old words that deserve revival
anywhen, batten, bedswerver, blashy, brightsome, bub, busk, canty, chuff, croodle, cumberworld, draggle and 42 more...
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Anglo euphonyms
Seemingly or actually Anglo-Saxon words, which are nice, and not very common. Predominantly oligosyllabic.
squinch, belfry, riffle, bosky, damask, twill, weft, warp, trestle, tussock, jamb, widdershins and 9 more...
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Welcome in Wonderland
Real words that I think would fit right into Wonderland/Underland vocabulary. Because I'm a geeky fangirl and that's how I roll. ^_^
widdershins, kenspeckle, thropple, whigmaleerie, swither, kerfuffle, stravaig, guddle, tapsalteerie, clashmaclavers, murgullie, umbersorrow and 37 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for swither.
bilby "People were … in a swither, unwilling to stir untill the first ruffle was past;"
- Erskine Diary, 1685. Jan 16, 2009
garyth123 Surely this is a verb. To swither means to be undecided, or something like that. Jan 16, 2009