EXAMPLES | WORD ORIGIN | IDIOMS noun the space covered by the stroke of a scythe or the cut of a mowing machine.
the piece or strip so cut.
a line or ridge of grass, grain, or the like, cut and thrown together by a scythe or mowing machine.
a strip, belt, or long and relatively narrow extent of anything.
Idioms cut a swath , to make a pretentious display; attract notice: The new doctor cut a swath in the small community.
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Origin of swath before 900; Middle English; Old English swæth footprint; cognate with German Shwade
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for swath Contemporary Examples of swath Still, a 30-something who knows his way around a cufflink is viewed with some suspicion by a swath of the French left.
He spoke of how well the present campaign had done in his home borough, particularly in a swath that he termed West Brooklyn.
A swath of regular military allies have sought postponements or rejected the idea of firing missiles toward Damascus.
In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry.
Why would Kristen choose to cheat with her SWATH director when she had Thor the god of thunder on the same movie set?
Historical Examples of swath Steel-Blue had cut a swath around him 15 feet deep and five feet wide.
Now you can understand the width of the swath he cuts in these parts.
I devastated a swath of territory fifty miles wide and a hundred miles long.
He is rather excitable and erratic, but he cuts quite a swath here.
His scythe is one that don't need any grindstun, and his swath is one that must be cut.
British Dictionary definitions for swath noun plural swaths (swɔːðz ) or swathes the width of one sweep of a scythe or of the blade of a mowing machine
the strip cut by either of these in one course
the quantity of cut grass, hay, or similar crop left in one course of such mowing
a long narrow strip or belt
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Word Origin for swath Old English swæth; related to Old Norse svath smooth patch
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for swath n. Old English swæð, swaðu "track, trace, band," from Proto-Germanic *swathan, *swatho (cf. Old Frisian swethe "boundary made by a scythe," Middle Dutch swade , German Schwad "a row of cut grass"); ulterior connections uncertain. Meaning "space covered by the single cut of a scythe" emerged late 15c., and that of "strip, lengthwise extent" is from c.1600.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with swath The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
