Word.ws English Dictionary

putting to the sword

putting to the sword is the present participle and gerund of put to the sword.

Meaning of put to the sword

Verb

put to the sword (third-person singular simple present puts to the sword, present participle putting to the sword, simple past and past participle put to the sword)

  1. (idiomatic) To execute, especially by using a sword.
  2. (idiomatic) To severely defeat.
    • Robin van Persie scored twice as ruthless Arsenal put struggling West Ham to the sword in a match tipped to be Avram Grant's last as Hammers boss.2011 January 15, Kevin Darling, “West Ham 0 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC
  3. (idiomatic) To kill by warfare.

Questions about putting to the sword

What is putting to the sword the present participle and gerund of?
Putting to the sword is the present participle and gerund of put to the sword.

Words near putting to the sword in the dictionary

  1. putting to sea
  2. putting to shame
  3. putting to sleep
  4. putting to the blush
  5. putting to the horn
  6. putting to the sword
  7. putting to the test
  8. putting to the torch
  9. putting to use
  10. putting to words
  11. putting to work

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting to the sword (page history and authors); put to the sword (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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