| / English Dictionary |
SWARTHY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: swarthier , swarthiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Naturally having skin of a dark color
Example:
'swart' is archaic
Synonyms:
dark-skinned; dusky; swart; swarthy
Classified under:
Similar:
brunet; brunette (marked by dark or relatively dark pigmentation of hair or skin or eyes)
Domain usage:
archaicism; archaism (the use of an archaic expression)
Derivation:
swarthiness (a swarthy complexion)
Context examples:
Swarthy boys and dark-eyed Madonnas, staring at you from one corner of the studio, suggested Murillo; oily brown shadows of faces with a lurid streak in the wrong place, meant Rembrandt; buxom ladies and dropiscal infants, Rubens; and Turner appeared in tempests of blue thunder, orange lightning, brown rain, and purple clouds, with a tomato-colored splash in the middle, which might be the sun or a bouy, a sailor's shirt or a king's robe, as the spectator pleased.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Suddenly, however, we heard a step behind us, and there was the landlord, his heavy eyebrows drawn over his savage eyes, his swarthy features convulsed with passion.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Through the open sitting-room window I saw a huge, swarthy man with a bristling black beard walking slowly down the centre of the street and staring eagerly at the numbers of the houses.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Behind us were grouped the two swarthy half-breeds and the little knot of Indians, while in front and above us towered those huge, ruddy ribs of rocks which kept us from our goal.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“And yet there is much in what the Gascon says,” said a swarthy fellow in a weather-stained doublet; “and I for one would rather prosper in Italy than starve in Spain.”
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The man sat all twisted and huddled in his chair in a way which gave an indescribable impression of deformity; but the face which he turned towards us, though worn and swarthy, must at some time have been remarkable for its beauty.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
That he loved her, on the other hand, was as clear as day, and she consciously delighted in beholding his love-manifestations—the glowing eyes with their tender lights, the trembling hands, and the never failing swarthy flush that flooded darkly under his sunburn.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
He was known in the trade as Black Peter, and the name was given him, not only on account of his swarthy features and the colour of his huge beard, but for the humours which were the terror of all around him.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In the middle of the floor of the empty room was huddled the figure of an enormous man, his clean-shaven, swarthy face grotesquely horrible in its contortion and his head encircled by a ghastly crimson halo of blood, lying in a broad wet circle upon the white woodwork.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The next, from the farther side of the rocky pinnacle before us a swarthy face, the face of Gomez the half-breed, was slowly protruded.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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