Etymology The noun is derived from Middle English swerd, sward (“rind, skin; leather strap; sod, turf”) [and other forms], from Old English sweard (“rind; skin”), from Proto-Germanic *swarduz (“rind; tough skin; turf”); further etymology unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.
1
Earth which grass has grown into the upper layer of; greensward, sod, turf; (countable) a portion of such earth.
His eyes he op'nd, and beheld a field, / Part arable and tilth, whereon were Sheaves / New reapt, the other part ſheep-walks and foulds; / Ith' midſt an Altar as the Land-mark ſtood / Ruſtic, of graſſie ſord; […]1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 429–433:
There is a dale in Ida, lovelier / Than any in old Ionia, beautiful / With emerald slopes of sunny sward, that lean / Above the loud glenriver, which hath worn / A path thro' steepdown granite walls below / Mantled with flowering tendriltwine.1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Œnone”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 51:
3 more examples
The road wound through the greenest sward, in which trees of venerable growth were relieved by a profusion of shrubs, and flowers gathered into baskets intertwined with creepers, or blooming from Etruscan vases, placed with a tasteful and classic care, in such spots as required filling up, and harmonised well with the object chosen.1837, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XIII, in Ernest Maltravers […] , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I, pages 125–126:
[F]or garden it was called, though consisting but of plots of sward, bordered by fruit trees, and white rose trees not yet in blossom, […]1843, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “Earl Warwick, the King-maker”, in The Last of the Barons, volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book II (The King’s Court), page 172:
And long we gazed, but satiated at length / Came to the ruins. High-arch'd and ivy-claspt, / Of finest Gothic, lighter than a fire, / Thro' one wide chasm of time and frost they gave / The park, the crowd, the house; but all within / The sward was trim as any garden lawn: […]1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 5:
2
An expanse of land covered in grass; a lawn or meadow.
It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The First Gun”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 9–10:
[O]f a sudden the trees began to thin and the sward to spread out onto a broad, green lawn, where five cows lay in the sunshine and droves of black swine wandered unchecked.1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “How Strange Things Befell in Minstead Wood”, in The White Company, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC, page 105:
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Only where George stood was there left a sward as of yore; the great, level, green lawn that served for both the Major's house and his daughter's.1918, Booth Tarkington, chapter XIII, in The Magnificent Ambersons, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 197:
3
Obsolete The upper layer of the ground, especially when vegetation is growing on it.
The roots of the Apple-tree, Olive, and Cypreſſe, lie very ebbe, and creepe hard under the ſourd of the ground.1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XVI.] Of the Boughs, Barke, and Roots of Trees.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 477:
4
Dialectal The rind of bacon or pork; also, the outer covering or skin of something.
Etymology The noun is derived from Middle English swerd, sward (“rind, skin; leather strap; sod, turf”) [and other forms], from Old English sweard (“rind; skin”), from Proto-Germanic *swarduz (“rind; tough skin; turf”); further etymology unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.
1
To cover (ground, etc.) with sward.
2
Of ground, etc.: to be covered with sward; to develop a covering of sward.
[Land...] will not sward again […]1644, Gabriel Plattes, in a letter in Hartlib's Legacy (1655), page 236
[…] for the ground immediately after corn is many years before it swards, and […]1765, Thomas Hamilton Haddington, A Short Treatise on Forest-trees, page 45:
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... with soil of a similar character, several fields have been laid down and ploughed up again under the old plea that they will not sward.1891, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Professional Notes, volume 5, page 256: