sworder
(ˈsɔːdə(r), ˈsɔədə(r))
[f. sword n. + -er1, after L. gladiātor gladiator.]
1. One who kills another with a sword, an assassin, cut-throat; one who habitually fights with a sword; a gladiator.
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI. iv. i. 135 A Romane Sworder, and Bandetto slaue Murder'd sweet Tully. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. iii. xiii. 31 Cæsar will.. be Stag'd to th' shew Against a Sworder. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth vi, I am honest, and so forth, you would say, but a hot-brained brawler, and common sworder or stabber. 1837–42 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) II. ii. 35 These mercenary sworders and musketeers. 1895 Athenæum 15 June 778/2 A naked babe..turns his smiling face to the truculent sworder who is about to execute the behest of the weak Herod. |
b. = sword-bearer e.
| 1537 [Coverdale] Orig. & Sprynge of Sectes 33 The Swearders. This order weareth whyt also, & .ii. reede sweardes crosse waye vpon a whyte cole [? cote], which signify theyr bloudy knight hode. |
2. One skilled in the use of the sword; a swordsman.
| 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles ii. xviii, With blade advanced, each Chieftain bold Show'd like the Sworder's form of old. 1820 Byron Juan iv. xlix, The third, a wary, cool old sworder, took The blows upon his cutlass. 1876 Earl Albemarle Fifty Years Life I. 106 A splendid horseman, a dexterous sworder. |