SWAY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sway

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/sweɪ/ Listen

noun

Sway n.

1.

The act of swaying; a swaying motion; the swing or sweep of a weapon. "With huge two-handed sway brandished aloft."

2.

Influence, weight, or authority that inclines to one side; as, the sway of desires.

3.

Preponderance; turn or cast of balance. "Expert When to advance, or stand, or turn the sway Of battle."

4.

Rule; dominion; control. "When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station."

5.

A switch or rod used by thatchers to bind their work. (Prov. Eng.)

Synonyms: Rule; dominion; power; empire; control; influence; direction; preponderance; ascendency.

verb

Sway v. t. (past & past part. swayed; pres. part. swaying)

1.

To move or wield with the hand; to swing; to wield; as, to sway the scepter. "As sparkles from the anvil rise, When heavy hammers on the wedge are swayed."

2.

To influence or direct by power and authority; by persuasion, or by moral force; to rule; to govern; to guide. "The will of man is by his reason swayed." "She could not sway her house." "This was the race To sway the world, and land and sea subdue."

3.

To cause to incline or swing to one side, or backward and forward; to bias; to turn; to bend; warp; as, reeds swayed by wind; judgment swayed by passion. "As bowls run true by being made On purpose false, and to be swayed." "Let not temporal and little advantages sway you against a more durable interest."

4.

(Naut.) To hoist; as, to sway up the yards.

Synonyms: To bias; rule; govern; direct; influence; swing; move; wave; wield.

Sway v. i.

1.

To be drawn to one side by weight or influence; to lean; to incline. "The balance sways on our part."

2.

To move or swing from side to side; or backward and forward.

3.

To have weight or influence. "The example of sundry churches... doth sway much."

4.

To bear sway; to rule; to govern. "Hadst thou swayed as kings should do."

See images of 'Sway'

Etymology of 'Sway'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Sway" Quotes from Famous Books

... royal fleet as the governor and general thereof, with the purpose of discovering the lands and islands of the West, which are and always were within his demarcation, in order to propagate and teach therein the gospel and the evangelical law, and to spread the Christian sway of our holy Catholic faith—the thing which, most of all, his majesty purposes in these parts. In the course of my expedition I arrived at these islands, where I was obliged to provide myself with certain supplies which I needed and which I did not have at hand; and in search ...

— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume II, 1521-1569 • Emma Helen Blair

... vociferating oaths dreadful to hear; and caught me in the act of stowing his son sway in the kitchen cupboard. Hareton was impressed with a wholesome terror of encountering either his wild beast's fondness or his madman's rage; for in one he ran a chance of being squeezed and kissed to death, and in the ...

— Wuthering Heights • Emily Bronte

... that he should receive credit for having so promptly and generously accomplished the hopes of the nation; and he had prepared a long proclamation to the French people in his own hand, in which he sincerely congratulated himself and them on the happiness, that France was about to enjoy under the sway of ...

— Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. II • Pierre Antoine Edouard Fleury de Chaboulon

... December, 1851, a successful ambush, a crime, odious, repulsive, infamous, unprecedented, considering the age in which it was committed, has triumphed and held sway, erecting itself into a theory, pluming itself in the sunlight, making laws, issuing decrees, taking society, religion, and the family under its protection, holding out its hand to the kings of Europe, who accept it, and calling them, "my brother," or "my ...

— Napoleon the Little • Victor Hugo

... organisms, the "abhorrence of self-fertilization" which Mr. Darwin speaks of as so conspicuous and inexplicable a phenomenon, is but one example of the sway of a law which as action and reaction, thesis and antithesis, is common to both elementary motion and thought. The fertile and profound fancy of Greece delighted to prefigure this truth in significant symbols and myths. Love, Eros, ...

— The Religious Sentiment - Its Source and Aim: A Contribution to the Science and - Philosophy of Religion • Daniel G. Brinton

Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com