What's the difference between promise and swear?

Promise


Definition:

  • (a.) In general, a declaration, written or verbal, made by one person to another, which binds the person who makes it to do, or to forbear to do, a specified act; a declaration which gives to the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act.
  • (a.) An engagement by one person to another, either in words or in writing, but properly not under seal, for the performance or nonperformance of some particular thing. The word promise is used to denote the mere engagement of a person, without regard to the consideration for it, or the corresponding duty of the party to whom it is made.
  • (a.) That which causes hope, expectation, or assurance; especially, that which affords expectation of future distinction; as, a youth of great promise.
  • (a.) Bestowal, fulfillment, or grant of what is promised.
  • (v. t.) To engage to do, give, make, or to refrain from doing, giving, or making, or the like; to covenant; to engage; as, to promise a visit; to promise a cessation of hostilities; to promise the payment of money.
  • (v. t.) To afford reason to expect; to cause hope or assurance of; as, the clouds promise rain.
  • (v. t.) To make declaration of or give assurance of, as some benefit to be conferred; to pledge or engage to bestow; as, the proprietors promised large tracts of land; the city promised a reward.
  • (v. i.) To give assurance by a promise, or binding declaration.
  • (v. i.) To afford hopes or expectation; to give ground to expect good; rarely, to give reason to expect evil.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Yet the Tory promise of fiscal rectitude prevailed in England Alexander had been in charge of Labour’s election strategy, but he could not strategise a victory over a 20-year-old Scottish nationalist who has not yet taken her finals.
  • (2) The HTCA is promising as a potential tool for studying the biology of tumors.
  • (3) David Cameron last night hit out at his fellow world leaders after the G8 dropped the promise to meet the historic aid commitments made at Gleneagles in 2005 from this year's summit communique.
  • (4) The success in these two infertile patients who had already undergone lengthy psychotherapy is promising.
  • (5) Measuring this value therefore is a very promising procedure.
  • (6) The Coalition promises to add more misery to their lives.
  • (7) Meanwhile Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, waiting anxiously for news of the scale of the Labour advance in his first nationwide electoral test, will urge the electorate not to be duped by the promise of a coalition mark 2, predicting sham concessions by the Conservatives .
  • (8) John Lewis’s marketing, advertising and reputation are all built on their promises of good customer services, and it is a large part of what still drives people to their stores despite cheaper online outlets.
  • (9) On the basis of reports in the literature and of our own clinical experience it appears that melanocyte inhibiting factor (MIF) is a very promising therapeutic agent in the management of Parkinson's disease.
  • (10) Since the employment of microwave energy for defrosting biological tissues and for microwave-aided diagnosis in cryosurgery is very promising, the problem of ensuring the match between the contact antennas (applicators) and the frozen biological object has become a pressing one.
  • (11) The 20-25 year-old cohort was found to yield the most promising results; however, a statistical difference was not found to exist using the volume or area.
  • (12) The arrest of the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent Jason Rezaian and his journalist wife, Yeganeh Salehi, as well as a photographer and her partner, is a brutal reminder of the distance between President Hassan Rouhani’s reforming promises and his willingness to act.
  • (13) The use of a new ultraviolet laser combined with a holographic grating spectrograph promises to increase the number of fluorescing species that can be detected simultaneously.
  • (14) So is the mock courtroom promising “justice and fairness”.
  • (15) But that promise was beginning to startle the markets, which admire Monti’s appetite for austerity and fear the free spending and anti-European views of some Italian politicians.
  • (16) Healthbars such as Nakd fit this category and promise to deliver one of your five a day, based on the quantity of freeze-dried date paste used.
  • (17) The most promising method was chemoradiotherapy using multifractionation of a daily dose of irradiation, the 4-year survival rate of 20% being achieved.
  • (18) Trials of these therapeutic schemes promise a higher efficacy of the therapeutic measures for gastroesophageal reflux.
  • (19) The glory lay in the defiance, although the outcome of the tie scarcely looks promising for Arsenal when the return at Camp Nou next Tuesday is borne in mind.
  • (20) One of the big sticking points is cash – with rich countries so far failing to live up to promise to mobilise $100bn a year by 2020 for climate finance .

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.