Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use swarthy in a sentence

17 example sentences · adjective, noun

Swarthy means tawny, dusky, dark. Example: “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.”

Examples of swarthy by meaning

adjectiveDarker-skinned than white, but lighter-skinned than tawny; tan.

  • 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 1501.2016, Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career, Second Edition, page 11

nounA swarthy person.

  • Then one of the swarthies popped a couple of shovels of coal into the small fo'c's'le stove — for it was cold that July night Down Under — and everyone began to talk.1962, The Skipper, volume 22, page 21
  • Hobby Lobby made a slight motion with his left hand and the swarthies froze in the desert.1980, The secret of Sam Marlow: The Further Adventures of the Man with Bogart's Face, page 12
  • The swarthies just stood waiting for whatever was in the air.1997, The Chariton Review, Volume 23, Issue 1, page 71

More sentences with swarthy

  • They don't like pictures of swarthy Jesi with Leventine noses, though.1998 November 16, Zepp, “Re: This IS Why We Reject The Religious REICH”, in talk.politics.misc (Usenet), message-ID…. From the entry Jesi
  • With his swarthy complexion and jet black, straight hair, Louis was actually quite dashing.1990, Paul Levy, Finger lickin' good: a Kentucky childhood. From the entry y'all
  • The door itself, wrought of a swarthy bronze all overgreened by time, stood slightly ajar.1944, Clark Ashton Smith, Lost Worlds. From the entry overgreen
  • The swarthy young delegate from the sheet-metal shop reported: “Zaporozhe is surrounded by an ocean of samagon.1943, Anna Louise Strong, Wild River, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, page 72. From the entry samagon
  • A swarthy boy opened a book and propped it nimbly under the breastwork of his satchel.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 2]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC. From the entry breastwork
  • Ardent suns had likewise tanned his face till it was swarthy as a Spaniard's.1912, Jack London, chapter 1, in A Son Of The Sun. From the entry incongruous
  • Beneath them my swarthy and hardy peasants are plodding up the hill asweat and athirst.1910 January 12, Ameen Rihani, “The Kaaba of Solitude”, in The Book of Khalid, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published October…. From the entry asweat
  • Nadezhda Osipovna’s singing reminded Vasily Lvovich of the husky songs of gypsies and swarthy pharaohesses, not the songs of fair ladies, and pleased him greatly.2007, Young Pushkin: A Novel, translation of original by Tynyanov, Yury, →ISBN, page 18. From the entry pharaohess
  • The door was opened by an odd, swarthy, dried-up person of uncertain age, with a dark pilot jacket and brown leather gaiters.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC. From the entry dried up
  • Whether he was at peace with his swarthy, bewrinkled old helpmate I do not know, but he appeared to be, and with his several partially grown children.1996, Theodore Dreiser, C. B. Falls, The color of a great city. From the entry bewrinkled
  • Newspapers and even some “scientific” theory reinforced vicious stereotypes that depicted Italians as swarthy and stupid, Irish as lazy and drunkardly, Jews as greedy and cunning.1975, Howard P. Chudacoff, The Evolution of American Urban Society, Prentice-Hall, Inc., →ISBN, page 117. From the entry drunkardly
  • It crossed strange lands and stranger seas, and sank with Atlantis before a Minoan fisher meshed it in his net and sold it to swarthy merchants from nighted Khem.1935, H. P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark. From the entry Khem
  • Debating the point was the fraternity's chief sadist, the aforementioned “Kluman the Obnoxious,” Kluman of the bulging malevolent black eyes, swarthy scowl, dark bass voice, and footballish build and disposition.2000, R.F. Dietrich, The Final Solution: A Novel for the End of Days, page 29. From the entry footballish

Meaning of swarthy

  1. adjective Tawny, dusky, dark.
  2. adjective Dark-skinned; black.
  3. adjective Darker-skinned than white, but lighter-skinned than tawny; tan.

Full definition of swarthy

Questions about swarthy in a sentence

How do you use swarthy in a sentence?
Swarthy is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “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.”
What is a short sentence with swarthy?
“The swarthies just stood waiting for whatever was in the air.”
What does swarthy mean?
Swarthy means tawny, dusky, dark.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swarthy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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