greensward
(ˈgriːnswɔːd)
For forms see sward.
Turf on which grass is growing.
| 1600 Holland Livy xxiii. xix. (1609) 487 When the enemies had turned up with a plough all the green sord. 1616 Surfl. & Markham Country Farme 662 Except you leaue such large space of greeneswarth betwixt it and the corne-lands, that [etc.]. 1637 B. Jonson Sad Sheph. i. ii, I am To cut the Table out o the greene sword. Ibid. i. v, On every greene sworth, and in every path. 1661 Walton Angler xvi. (ed. 3) 221 When you see men ploughing up..greenswards, then follow the plough. 1709 Pope Jan. & May 621 The Knights so nimbly o'er the greensward bound. 1792 S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 147 Oft as he turned the greensward with his spade. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg., Netley Abbey, There they lie on the greensward strown. 1854 Hawthorne Eng. Note-Bks. (1879) I. 325 The garden is..set out with greensward and gravel-walks. |
b. attrib., as greensward ground; greensward way = green way, lit. and fig. (see green a. 2 b).
| 1691 Dryden K. Arthur ii. ii, Trembling bogs, that bear a greensward show. 1697 ― æneid iii. 291 We spread the Tables, on the greensword Ground. 1703 Savage Lett. Antients viii. 46 He..had an easy greensword Way to whatever else he had a mind to persue. 1808 Scott Marm. iv. iv, The green-sward way was smooth and good. |
Hence ˈgreenswarded a., covered with greensward.
| a 1847 Eliza Cook Old Mill-Stream i. 2 The greenswarded paradise watered by thee. 1870 Huxley Lay Serm. iii. (1874) 48 Greenswarded courts. |