v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Answered p. pr. & vb. n. Answering. ] [ OE. andswerien, AS. andswerian, andswarian, to answer, fr. andswaru, n., answer. See Answer, n. ] 1. To speak in defense against; to reply to in defense; as, to answer a charge; to answer an accusation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To speak or write in return to, as in return to a call or question, or to a speech, declaration, argument, or the like; to reply to (a question, remark, etc.); to respond to. [ 1913 Webster ]

She answers him as if she knew his mind. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

So spake the apostate angel, though in pain: . . .
And him thus answered soon his bold compeer. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To respond to satisfactorily; to meet successfully by way of explanation, argument, or justification, and the like; to refute. [ 1913 Webster ]

No man was able to answer him a word. Matt. xxii. 46. [ 1913 Webster ]

These shifts refuted, answer thine appellant. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

The reasoning was not and could not be answered. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To be or act in return or response to. Hence: (a) To be or act in compliance with, in fulfillment or satisfaction of, as an order, obligation, demand; as, he answered my claim upon him; the servant answered the bell. [ 1913 Webster ]

This proud king . . . studies day and night
To answer all the debts he owes unto you. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) To render account to or for. [ 1913 Webster ]

I will . . . send him to answer thee. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

(c) To atone; to be punished for. [ 1913 Webster ]

And grievously hath Cæzar answered it. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

(d) To be opposite to; to face. [ 1913 Webster ]

The windows answering each other, we could just discern the glowing horizon them. Gilpin. [ 1913 Webster ]

(e) To be or act an equivalent to, or as adequate or sufficient for; to serve for; to repay. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Money answereth all things. Eccles. x. 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

(f) To be or act in accommodation, conformity, relation, or proportion to; to correspond to; to suit. [ 1913 Webster ]

Weapons must needs be dangerous things, if they answered the bulk of so prodigious a person. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To speak or write by way of return (originally, to a charge), or in reply; to make response. [ 1913 Webster ]

There was no voice, nor any that answered. 1 Kings xviii. 26. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To make a satisfactory response or return. Hence: To render account, or to be responsible; to be accountable; to make amends; as, the man must answer to his employer for the money intrusted to his care. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let his neck answer for it, if there is any martial law. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To be or act in return. Hence: (a) To be or act by way of compliance, fulfillment, reciprocation, or satisfaction; to serve the purpose; as, gypsum answers as a manure on some soils. [ 1913 Webster ]

Do the strings answer to thy noble hand? Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) To be opposite, or to act in opposition. (c) To be or act as an equivalent, or as adequate or sufficient; as, a very few will answer. (d) To be or act in conformity, or by way of accommodation, correspondence, relation, or proportion; to conform; to correspond; to suit; -- usually with to. [ 1913 Webster ]

That the time may have all shadow and silence in it, and the place answer to convenience. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

If this but answer to my just belief,
I 'll remember you. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. Prov. xxvii. 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. andsware, AS. andswaru; and against + swerian to swear. √177, 196. See Anti-, and Swear, and cf. 1st un-. ] 1. A reply to a charge; a defense. [ 1913 Webster ]

At my first answer no man stood with me. 2 Tim. iv. 16. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Something said or written in reply to a question, a call, an argument, an address, or the like; a reply. [ 1913 Webster ]

A soft answer turneth away wrath. Prov. xv. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

I called him, but he gave me no answer. Cant. v. 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Something done in return for, or in consequence of, something else; a responsive action. [ 1913 Webster ]

Great the slaughter is
Here made by the Roman; great the answer be
Britons must take. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A solution, the result of a mathematical operation; as, the answer to a problem. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Law) A counter-statement of facts in a course of pleadings; a confutation of what the other party has alleged; a responsive declaration by a witness in reply to a question. In Equity, it is the usual form of defense to the complainant's charges in his bill. Bouvier. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Reply; rejoinder; response. See Reply. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Obliged to answer; liable to be called to account; liable to pay, indemnify, or make good; accountable; amenable; responsible; as, an agent is answerable to his principal; to be answerable for a debt, or for damages. [ 1913 Webster ]

Will any man argue that . . . he can not be justly punished, but is answerable only to God? Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Capable of being answered or refuted; admitting a satisfactory answer. [ 1913 Webster ]

The argument, though subtle, is yet answerable. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Correspondent; conformable; hence, comparable. [ 1913 Webster ]

What wit and policy of man is answerable to their discreet and orderly course? Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

This revelation . . . was answerable to that of the apostle to the Thessalonians. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Proportionate; commensurate; suitable; as, an achievement answerable to the preparation for it. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Equal; equivalent; adequate. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Had the valor of his soldiers been answerable, he had reached that year, as was thought, the utmost bounds of Britain. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being answerable, liable, responsible, or correspondent. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In an answerable manner; in due proportion or correspondence; suitably. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who answers. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having no answer, or impossible to be answered. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ AS. aswebban; a + swebban. See Sweven. ] To stupefy. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. aligned from front to back; slanted toward the back; -- used of hair.
Syn. -- sweptback. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. One who swerves from and is unfaithful to the marriage vow. [ Poetic ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Sweet and then bitter or bitter and then sweet; esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (Fig.), pleasant but painful. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Anything which is bittersweet. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of apple so called. Gower. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Bot.) (a) A climbing shrub, with oval coral-red berries (Solanum dulcamara); woody nightshade. The whole plant is poisonous, and has a taste at first sweetish and then bitter. The branches are the officinal dulcamara. (b) An American woody climber (Celastrus scandens), whose yellow capsules open late in autumn, and disclose the red aril which covers the seeds; -- also called Roxbury waxwork. [ 1913 Webster ]

A sweat accompanied by a discharge of blood; a disease, called sweating sickness, formerly prevalent in England and other countries. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a genus of incense-yielding trees of North Africa and India.
Syn. -- genus Boswellia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Relating to, or characteristic of, Dr. Johnson's biographer, James Boswell, whose hero worship made his narrative a faithful but often uncritical record of details. -- Bos"well*ize v. i. & t. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

n. The style of Boswell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. someone who cleans soot from chimneys, usually as a profession.
Syn. -- chimneysweeper, sweep. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. i. See Dasewe [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To deprive of sweetness. [ R. ] Bp. Richardson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To sweep over or across; to pass over rapidly. [ R. ] Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To swear falsely; to commit perjury. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. Forswore p. p. Forsworn p. pr. & vb. n. Forswearing. ] [ OE. forsweren, forswerien, AS. forswerian; pref. for- + swerian to swear. See For-, and Swear, v. i. ] 1. To reject or renounce upon oath; hence, to renounce earnestly, determinedly, or with protestations. [ 1913 Webster ]

I . . . do forswear her. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To deny upon oath. [ 1913 Webster ]

Like innocence, and as serenely bold
As truth, how loudly he forswears thy gold! Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

To forswear one's self, to swear falsely; to perjure one's self. “Thou shalt not forswear thyself.” Matt. v. 33.

Syn. -- See Perjure. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who rejects of renounces upon oath; one who swears a false oath. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A long, deep wave in the sea, sometimes caused by distant winds or storms. [ PJC ]

2. A rising sentiment of support or enthusiasm, especially among the general public; as, a groundswell of opinion favoring campaign finance reform. [ PJC ]

a. Rankling in, or swelling, the heart. “Heartswelling hate.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Inflated; boastful. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Sweet as honey. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Narrowed at the forward end; -- said of an automobile frame when the side members are closer together at the forward end than at the rear. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. [ AS. mānswerian to forswear; mān sin, crime + swerian to swear. ] To swear falsely. [ Obs. ] Blount. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To swear falsely. Same as Mainswear. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. (Bot.) The name of several plants of the genus Spiraea, especially the white- or pink-flowered Spiraea salicifolia, a low European and American shrub, and the herbaceous Spiraea Ulmaria, which has fragrant white flowers in compound cymes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A boat designed for the purpose of detecting and disposing of marine mines. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. the activity of detecting and disposing of marine mines. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. i. To swear falsely. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To wear ill. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To wed improperly. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To ween amiss; to misjudge; to distrust; to be mistaken. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To go wrong; to go astray. [ Obs. ] “The world is miswent.” Gower. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) Any large seaweed of the genus Laminaria; tangle; kelp. See Kelp. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Bot.) An American aromatic herb (Monarda didyma), with showy, bright red, labiate flowers. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To exceed in swearing. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To surpass in sweetness. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To exceed in swelling. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To swell beyond; to overflow. [ Obs. ] Hewyt. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. & i. To swell or rise above; to overflow. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ So called from its note. ] [ Prov. Eng. ] (Zool.) (a) The pewit, or lapwing. (b) The greenfinch. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. & i. To answer in return; to repay; to compensate; to make amends for. [ 1913 Webster ]

Which in weight to reanswer, his pettiness would bow under. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Swealed p. pr. & vb. n. Swealing. ] [ OE. swelen to burn, AS. swelan; akin to G. schwelen to burn slowly, schwül sultry, Icel. svaela a thick smoke. ] To melt and run down, as the tallow of a candle; to waste away without feeding the flame. [ Written also swale. ] Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To singe; to scorch; to swale; as, to sweal a pig by singeing off the hair. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. Swore formerly Sware p. p. Sworn p. pr. & vb. n. Swearing. ] [ OE. swerien, AS. swerian; akin to D. zweren, OS. swerian, OHG. swerien, G. schwören, Icel. sverja, Sw. svärja, Dan. svaerge, Icel. & Sw. svara to answer, Dan. svare, Dan. & Sw. svar an answer, Goth. swaran to swear, and perhaps to E. swarm. √177. Cf. Answer. ] 1. To affirm or utter a solemn declaration, with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed; to make a promise, threat, or resolve on oath; also, to affirm solemnly by some sacred object, or one regarded as sacred, as the Bible, the Koran, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye shall swear by my name falsely. Lev. xix. 12. [ 1913 Webster ]

I swear by all the Roman gods. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) To give evidence on oath; as, to swear to the truth of a statement; he swore against the prisoner. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To make an appeal to God in an irreverant manner; to use the name of God or sacred things profanely; to call upon God in imprecation; to curse. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ I ] swore little; diced not above seven times a week. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To swear by, to place great confidence in a person or thing; to trust implicitly as an authority. “I simply meant to ask if you are one of those who swear by Lord Verulam.” Miss Edgeworth. --
To swear off, to make a solemn vow, or a serious resolution, to abstain from something; as, to swear off smoking. [ Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]