swear on a stack of Bibles
swear on a stack of Bibles verb: to make a promise or give an assurance with great conviction.
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)
- 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
- Says L.A. Times Managing Editor Frank McCulloch: "I know it looks bad, but I'll swear on a stack of Bibles it's a sheer coincidence."1962 July 13, “Sheer Coincidence”, in Time, archived from the original on 23 Aug 2013
- Synonyms:
- swear on one's life, swear on the Bible
Examples of swear on a stack of Bibles in a sentence
- I could swear on a stack of Bibles, but who would believe me? […] So I did it.1956, Billie Holiday with William Dufty, Lady Sings the Blues, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC:
- Swear on a stack of Bibles.” He leaned into his sister and sniffled against her chest. / “I promise,” she answered.2005, Jan Watson, edited by Jerry B. Jenkins, Troublesome Creek, Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., →ISBN:
- C’mon, swear it on a stack of Bibles!’ / ‘I swear on a stack of Bibles I’ll never tell, cross my heart and hope to die,’ I say, adding the extra bit for good measure.2001, Bryce Courtenay, Four Fires, Middlesex: Penguin Books, →ISBN:
Synonyms of swear on a stack of Bibles
- swear on one's life
- swear on the Bible
Forms of swear on a stack of Bibles
| third-person singular present | swears on a stack of Bibles |
|---|---|
| present participle | swearing on a stack of Bibles |
| past | swore on a stack of Bibles |
| past participle | sworn on a stack of Bibles |
| alternative form | swear on a stack |
| alternative form | swear on stacks of Bibles |
| alternative form | promise on a stack of Bibles |
Origin of swear on a stack of Bibles
From the practice of some people making an oath on a Bible to tell the truth when testifying in court.
Questions about swear on a stack of Bibles
- What does swear on a stack of Bibles mean?
- Swear on a stack of Bibles means to make a promise or give an assurance with great conviction.
- How do you use swear on a stack of Bibles in a sentence?
- I could swear on a stack of Bibles, but who would believe me? […] So I did it.
- What part of speech is swear on a stack of Bibles?
- Swear on a stack of Bibles is a verb.
- What is the past tense of swear on a stack of Bibles?
- The past tense of swear on a stack of Bibles is swore on a stack of Bibles.
Words near swear on a stack of Bibles in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-swear on a stack of Bibles.ogg.
Cite this entry: “swear on a stack of Bibles.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swear_on_a_stack_of_bibles. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.