What's the difference between forswear and swear?

Forswear


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To reject or renounce upon oath; hence, to renounce earnestly, determinedly, or with protestations.
  • (v. i.) To deny upon oath.
  • (v. i.) To swear falsely; to commit perjury.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There is something Spielbergian about his commitment to small characters and well-crafted performances, but he forswears Spielberg’s manipulations and sentimentality – real anguish is palpably present here.
  • (2) It is true I have not been killed or crippled, been a loser in the stocks, or had to forswear my fatherland, but I have not quite gone free and have a right to say something."
  • (3) But even that glass ran dry after a near brush with death, while the loss of a yard of intestine in the late 1990s led to him forswearing alcohol exactly a year after his younger brother Piers had died of an alcohol-related disease.
  • (4) They also wanted him to forswear trying those charged in military commissions that the supreme court had junked in a 2008 ruling.
  • (5) One apparent exception to the Yemen-Somalia model of Obama’s emerging anti-Isis strategy is an explicit forswearing of US ground combat forces in Iraq and Syria , although Obama has sent significant numbers of special operations “advisers” to Iraq.
  • (6) His February confirmation hearing featured Brennan having to forswear internal knowledge of torture; insisting, contrary to contemporaries’ recollections, that he attempted to stop it; and pledging to work with the committee on a torture report he said he had not fully read.
  • (7) Who can imagine Israel, India, Pakistan or Iran forswearing nuclear ambitions because we have done so?

Swear


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To affirm or utter a solemn declaration, with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed; to make a promise, threat, or resolve on oath; also, to affirm solemnly by some sacred object, or one regarded as sacred, as the Bible, the Koran, etc.
  • (v. i.) To give evidence on oath; as, to swear to the truth of a statement; he swore against the prisoner.
  • (v. i.) To make an appeal to God in an irreverant manner; to use the name of God or sacred things profanely; to call upon God in imprecation; to curse.
  • (v. t.) To utter or affirm with a solemn appeal to God for the truth of the declaration; to make (a promise, threat, or resolve) under oath.
  • (v. t.) To put to an oath; to cause to take an oath; to administer an oath to; -- ofetn followed by in or into; as, to swear witnesses; to swear a jury; to swear in an officer; he was sworn into office.
  • (v. t.) To declare or charge upon oath; as, he swore treason against his friend.
  • (v. t.) To appeal to by an oath.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It’s no good me swearing on a Bible; I don’t share your faith.” Morrison said: “I will do it, Ray, but I think it’s a very offensive thing for you to ask me to do but I’ll do it if that’s what you require...if you insist I will.” Hadley did not persist with the demand.
  • (2) Perhaps he modified his language for the NY Times reporter, but the more likely explanation is that his swearing added nothing and was therefore omitted by the writer or edited out; in America, even in liberal New York, profanities still need to be argued into print.
  • (3) I swear you don't even like each other and yet you're helping each other out?'"
  • (4) A jury is empanelled, 11 of them swearing on the Bible, one on the Qur’an: six women, six men.
  • (5) When election strategists brought in to pour over Ghani’s speeches told him to swear off coffee on rally days to strengthen his voice, he gave up one of his very few indulgences immediately.
  • (6) A few years back, a survey of 3,000 11-year-olds revealed that nine out of 10 parents swear in front of their children, and the average kid heard six different expletives per week (whoever said profanity was bad for your vocabulary?).
  • (7) Asked if he would "swear it", Huhne replies: "Absolutely.
  • (8) • 1050 East Palm Canyon Drive (+1 760 323 1858, thehorizonhotel.com ); double rooms from $109 The Movie Colony Movie Colony, Palm Springs Concierge John-Michael swears that Jim Morrison made the leap from balcony to pool here in 1969, and that Frank Sinatra was a resident while his nearby home was being renovated – and even though the myth of celebrity tends to get overblown, if not utterly fabricated, in southern California, we found no reason not to take him at his word.
  • (9) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sixtus ‘Baggio’ Leung and Yau Wai-ching with anti-China banners during their swearing-in ceremony.
  • (10) For a moment he sounds almost camp, but mainly he is solid, talking slowly in a deep voice, sometimes swearing for emphasis, rounding off his sentences "and so on and so forth".
  • (11) The limited swearing, which he does admit, and immediately apologised for, could preclude redemption by reshuffle in the court of parliament, even if it would not be fatal in a court of law.
  • (12) Israel has approved a massive new building programme of Jewish settlement homes in the occupied Palestinian territories , following hard on the heels of the swearing-in of the US president, Donald Trump.
  • (13) 6.37pm GMT Falcons 3 - Seahawks 0, 3:23 1st quarter I swear Ryan is calling out "street meat, street meat" on the line of scrimmage.
  • (14) Scott Morrison has said he was “offended” and “disappointed” that his friend the broadcaster Ray Hadley pressed him to swear an oath on the Bible to prove he was telling the truth about his actions in the Liberal leadership upheaval.
  • (15) "I have to say that if I had been wearing these glasses that day against England," he told the Daily Record in 2005, "then I swear they would only have scored about eight."
  • (16) To really be beloved in France he needs to learn to swear with the virtuosity of a Frenchman who's mislaid his linen Agnes B scarf in the Rue du Bac.
  • (17) Ghana had two players sent home, Sulley Muntari for hitting an official and Kevin-Prince Boateng for allegedly swearing at the coach.
  • (18) The video and audio recordings revealed the swearing in of ’Ndrangheta mobsters to an elite membership known as “Santa”.
  • (19) They swear a lot, but they don’t threaten to file a complaint.
  • (20) But learning how to ski in backcountry takes years, and can involve a lot of swearing and slapstick mishap.