Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Fine metallic filings or shavings removed by a cutting tool.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The grit mixed with particles of iron or steel worn away in grinding cutlery wet.
  • noun Stupor; a fainting-fit; a swoon.
  • To faint; swoon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb Scot. To grow languid; to faint.
  • noun Prov. Eng. The grit worn away from grindstones in grinding cutlery wet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the waste chips or shavings from metalworking or a saw cutting wood
  • noun the grit worn away by use of a grindstone or whetstone, being particles of the material being cut and of the cutting stone itself

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse svarf.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1565, from Middle English *swerf, from Old English geswearf, gesweorf; akin to Old English sweorfan (modern English swerve), from Proto-Germanic.

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Examples

Comments

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  • remnants of filing

    February 9, 2007

  • The wet or greasy grit abraded from a grindstone or axle; the filings or shavings of iron or steel. Hence, any fine waste produced by a machining operation, especially when in the form of strips or ribbons.

    February 15, 2008

  • Is this like bort?

    April 9, 2008

  • Swar -- wait for it -- f.

    August 25, 2009