Word.ws English Dictionary

swear on a stack

swear on a stack is the ellipsis of swear on a stack of Bibles.

Meaning of swear on a stack of Bibles

Verb

swear on a stack of Bibles (third-person singular simple present swears on a stack of Bibles, present participle swearing on a stack of Bibles, simple past swore on a stack of Bibles, past participle sworn on a stack of Bibles)

  1. To make a promise or give an assurance with great conviction.
    • Why not check me into a sanatorium, let them watch me, examine me, give me the tests? In twelve hours they can tell whether I'm lying or not. If I'm clean, I'll be all right. If I'm not, I'll get sick as a dog, start throwing up at both ends, and this would prove I'm a damn liar. It would be better...1956, Billie Holiday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    swear on one's life, swear on the Bible

Forms of swear on a stack

third-person singular presentswears on a stack
present participleswearing on a stack
pastswore on a stack
past participlesworn on a stack

Questions about swear on a stack

What is swear on a stack the ellipsis of?
Swear on a stack is the ellipsis of swear on a stack of Bibles.

Words near swear on a stack in the dictionary

  1. swear like a pagan
  2. swear like a sailor
  3. swear like a trooper
  4. swear off
  5. swear on
  6. swear on a stack
  7. swear on a stack of Bibles
  8. swear out
  9. swear the peace
  10. swear to God
  11. swear upon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swear on a stack (page history and authors); swear on a stack of Bibles (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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