Swarf
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The waste chips or shavings from an abrasive activity, such as metalworking, a saw cutting wood, or the use of a grindstone or whetstone. uncountable
"Filings of iron, called Swarf, the barrel — — 0 [shillings] 2 [pence]"
- 2 A faint or swoon. obsolete
"And when they had ſo continued feaſting for a ſhort time, they had been ſo ſerved before, and the food was ſo rare and excellent, that they fell into a ſwarf, and cried out, Cant[icle of Canticles] ii. 4, 5. 'He hath brought me into the banqueting-houſe, and his banner over me was love. O ſtay me with flaggons, comfort me with apples, for I am ſick of love.'"
- 3 A particular waste chip or shaving. countable
"These swarfs, especially if they are of the tin bronze type, can usually be re-melted, after passing over a magnetic separator, by adding a small percentage to each charge of the alloy issued to the foundry for melting."
- 1 To grind down. transitive
"A machine for swarfing the joining edges of parts or sub-assemblies having compound angle surfaces is announced by the Rockford Machine Tool Co., Rockford, 111."
- 2 To grow languid; to faint. Scotland, intransitive, obsolete
"Meg, rinnin like a flae in blanket, / Her coats upon a lang nail hanket, / That gart her coup the creels [i.e., fall head over heels] an' ſqueel, / "Ah! Sirce, I'm gruppet by a de'il!" / An' as ſhe near the threſhold lay, / Wae's me! ſhe near hand ſwarf'd away!"
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Filings of iron, called Swarf, the barrel — — 0 [shillings] 2 [pence]"
Etymology
From Middle English *swarf, *swerf, from Old English ġeswearf, ġesweorf (“iron filings; rust”) and/or Old Norse svarf (“metallic dust”), both from Proto-Germanic *swarbą (“that which is rubbed off; shavings”), from Proto-Germanic *swerbaną (“to mop, wipe; to rub off”); see further at swerve. The word is cognate to Old English sweorfan (“to rub, scour; to file”).
From Middle English swarven, swerven (“to go; to deviate, turn aside; to stagger, be unsteady; to swerve”), from Old English sweorfan (“to wipe; to polish; to rub, scour; to file”), from Proto-Germanic *swerbaną (“to mop, wipe; to rub off”). The word is cognate to Middle Dutch swerven (“to rove; to stray”) (whence Dutch zwerven (“to roam”)), Low German swarven (“to rove; to stray; to riot”), Old Norse svarfa (“to sweep; to be agitated, upset”), Norwegian svarva (“to agitate”), sverva (“to whirl”). See swerve.
More for "swarf"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.