Dictionary

swordie en · NOUN

Etymology

From sword(fish) + -ie.

Meanings

1. (colloquial) A swordfish.
   • It’s our job to keep watch on the sea for’ard and on both beams for a fin, or for shoal fish where it’s likely a swordie will be. All you’ll see of a swordie will be his fin sticking above water and cutting it like a knife. 1939, Arthur W[illiam] Upfield, “‘Fish-Oh!’”, in The Mystery of Swordfish Reef, New York, N.Y.: Scribner Paperback Fiction, published 1998, →ISBN, page 72:
   • A swordfish was different. If your line ran out some way then stopped, this could be “old Swordie” first making off with the bait between his jaws, […] “Don’t brake yet,” he warned, “let her run out till she stops—acts like a swordie.” […] “There you are!” Bob shouted suddenly. “A swordie; I thought so.” 1948 May, Thomas Woodrooffe, “In the Bay of Islands”, in Blackwood’s Magazine, volume 263, number 1591, Edinburgh, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 385–387, column 1:
   • This picturesque and historic little place is the main centre for a really amazing sport—rod-fishing for swordfish, tiger or “mako” sharks, and kingfish. These fighting giants of the sea are undoubtedly among the finest game-fish known, and a man who has brought to the gaff a well-conditioned “swordie” of three hundred pounds or so, or a “mako” which turns the scale at a good four hundred pounds, will have experienced all the thrill he is ever likely to know so far as wielding the rod is concerned. 1925, W. W. Dunsterville, “Big Game Fishing in New Zealand: After Swordfish and Tiger Sharks with Rod and Line”, in The Wide World Magazine, London, →OCLC, page 80, column 2:

Forms