Swede
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The fleshy yellow root of a variety of rape, Brassica napus var. napobrassica, resembling a large turnip, grown as a vegetable. British
- 2 A person from Sweden or of Swedish descent.
- 3 the large yellow root of a rutabaga plant used as food wordnet
- 4 The plant from which this is obtained.
- 5 A member of an ancient North Germanic tribe that inhabited central Sweden historical
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 a native or inhabitant of Sweden wordnet
- 7 The turnip. Ireland, Northern-England, Scotland
- 8 a cruciferous plant with a thick bulbous edible yellow root wordnet
- 9 The head. UK, slang
"Gotta be so careful nowadays; local copper's no problem but the cow from the council done me 'cos this almost brained a punter when it fell on his swede."
- 1 To produce a low-budget remake of a film without the use of professional actors or filming techniques.
"Chances are you've sweded something before without even knowing it."
Example
More examples"An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Gurkha, a Latvian, a Turk, an Aussie, a German, an American, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Jordanian, a Kiwi, a Swede, a Finn, an Israeli, a Romanian, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian, an Argentinian, a Libyan and a South African went to a night club. The bouncer said: "Sorry, I can't let you in without a Thai.""
Etymology
From the earlier term Swedish turnip, because the Swedes introduced the plant to the English in the 1700s.
Coined by Michel Gondry in the film Be Kind Rewind, from the claim that films produced in this way were imported from Sweden.
From Middle Low German Swêde, from a Germanic word akin to Old Norse Svíþjóð, Old English Swēoþēod (“Sweden”, literally “Swede nation”), itself from Swēo (“Swede”), from Proto-Germanic *swihô (“Swede”). Cognate with Dutch Zweed, German Schwede. Doublet of suede.
Related phrases
More for "swede"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.