Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
swear at en · VERB
Meanings
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(colloquial, dated, transitive) To be disagreeably incongruous with, especially in colour; to clash.
Coal-scuttle poke-bonnets, short and scanty skirts, huge splay feet arrayed in indescribable shoes and boots, colours which swore at each other - these were the outward and visible signs of the British fair of that day.
1978, Fanny Kemble, Eleanor Ransome, The Terrific Kemble: A Victorian Self-Portrait:[…] in several instances there was another and quite a different red in the gown, which “swore” at its relative on the parasol.
1885, Truth, volume 18, page 109:
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Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see swear, at.
One protester was arrested after swearing at a police officer.
Forms