Swarthy

/ˈswɔɹði/ · adjective

Meaning

Tawny, dusky, dark..

Definitions by Sense

1. Tawny, dusky, dark.
2. (somewhat derogatory) Dark-skinned; black.
3. Darker-skinned than white, but lighter-skinned than tawny; tan.
4. A dark grey color.
5. (nonstandard) Evil, malicious.
6. (nonstandard) Weathered, rough.
7. A swarthy person.

Example Sentences

Their swarthy Hosts wou'd darken all our Plains, / Doubling the native Horror of the War, / And making Death more grim.

the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People

Yossarian went along in Milo Minderbinder's speeding M & M staff car to police headquarters to meet a swarthy, untidy police commissioner with a narrow black mustache and unbuttoned tunic who was fiddling with a stout woman with warts and two chins when they entered his office and who greeted Milo with warm surprise and bowed and scraped in obscene servility as though Milo were some elegant marquis.

Such was the religion that a young, swarthy man of medium height took with him as he trudged off to the University of Erfurt in May 1501.

Mason: "Okay, how do I look, really?" Betty: "…'Swarthy.'" Mason: "Well, is that good?" Betty: "Depends if you like 'swarthy.'" Mason: "Do you like 'swarthy'?" Betty: "Not particularly."

Real controversial stuff, sure, but you know what, he was actually in the dead center of polite opinion when it came to the Negroes and the swarthies and money-grubbing kikes and all those other lovely stereotypes.

The swarthies didn't bother to threaten us this time; instead, they mocked us with catcalls and whistles, as we squeezed past them in abject humiliation.

A school friend of mine, Gavin, one of the swarthies, organised one May afternoon a tea party at his parents' house in Cheyne Walk.

Synonyms for swarthy

Antonyms for swarthy

Related Words

Word Forms

• swarthier
• swarthiest
• swarthies

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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