SWAIN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Swain

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/sweɪn/ Listen

noun

Swain n.

A servant. (Obs.) "Him behoves serve himself that has no swain."

A young man dwelling in the country; a rustic; esp., a cuntry gallant or lover; chiefly in poetry. "It were a happy life To be no better than a homely swain." "Blest swains! whose nymphs in every grace excel."

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Etymology of 'Swain'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Swain" Quotes from Famous Books

... beside march'd amorous Desire, Who seem'd of riper years than the other swain, Yet was that other swain this elder's sire, And gave him being, common to them twain: His garment was disguised very vain, And his embroidered bonnet sat awry; Twixt both his hands few sparks he close did strain, ...

— Lectures on the English Poets - Delivered at the Surrey Institution • William Hazlitt

... enough to dismiss him without pity before they reached her house, and this she did every time. For she went to the theater each night now, and every evening she received an ardent note, and every evening she allowed the amorous swain to accompany her as far as her house, and men were beginning to envy him on account of his brilliant conquest, when a catastrophe happened which was very surprising for ...

— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... the lady gave her ci-devant lover an ingenious reproof, after they had been separated some time, when a marriage-bargain was broken off, because the lover could not obtain from the girl's father a certain brown filly as part of her dowry. The damsel, after the lapse of some weeks, met her swain at a neighbouring fair, and the flame of love still smouldering in his heart was re-illumined by the sight of his charmer, who, on the contrary, had become quite disgusted with him for his too obvious preference of profit to true affection. He addressed ...

— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover

... Comte de Chabannes is the archetypical "decent chap," the faithful but rejected swain who sacrifices himself for the welfare of his beloved without expectation of reward. In the hands of another writer, with some modification, he could have provided a happy ending in the "Mills and ...

— The Princess of Montpensier • Madame de La Fayette

... with her. And he gave her some lovely books that he had bought on purpose for me! And, Daisy says things all the time that prove it. I don't want anything to do with another girl's rustic swain. That I don't!" ...

— Patty Blossom • Carolyn Wells

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