Definition of "swarth"

swarth¹

/swɔː(ɹ)ð/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural swarthes or swarths
1. Alternative form of sward
  Quotations
  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
  Grassy swarth, close cropped by nibbling sheep.
  1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […]

swarth²

/swɔː(ɹ)ð/

adjective
comparative more swarth, superlative most swarth
1. (archaic) swarthy
  Quotations
  […] 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
  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; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857,

swarth³

/swɔː(ɹ)ð/

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