Word.ws English Dictionary

swither

/ˈswɪðə/

swither verb: to burn, scorch, singe.

Verb (1)

swither (third-person singular simple present swithers, present participle swithering, simple past and past participle swithered)

  1. (dialectal) To burn, scorch, singe.
  2. (dialectal) To burn slowly, melt (as a candle), sweal
  3. (dialectal, figuratively) To smart, ache; tingle

Noun (1)

swither (countable and uncountable, plural swithers)

  1. (dialectal) A great heat; a scorching, singeing
  2. (dialectal) Sweating.

Verb (2)

swither (third-person singular simple present swithers, present participle swithering, simple past and past participle swithered)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) To be indecisive or in a state of confusion; to dither.
  2. To move or swing about.
    • He was filling his pipe, staring at his picture, not her, and this tacit dismissal allowed her to sidle over to the bank higher up, and there swither her legs about in the water before coming out of it.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 51

Noun (2)

swither (plural swithers)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) A state of indecision or confusion; a panicked state; a flap, fluster, or dither.
    • Bradly came bristling to the lagoon the following afternoon, in a swither of alarm and expectation.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 49

Forms of swither

Verb
third-person singular presentswithers
present participleswithering
past participleswithered
pastswithered
alternative formswether
alternative formswidder
Noun
pluralswithers

Origin of swither

From Middle English *swithren, from Old Norse sviðra (“to burn, singe”). Related to Middle English swithen (“to burn, scorch, singe”), from Old Norse svíða (“to burn”).

First attested in 1501; of unknown origin.

Words that rhyme with swither

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swither

What does swither mean?
Swither means to burn, scorch, singe.
What part of speech is swither?
Swither can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce swither?
Swither is pronounced /ˈswɪðə/.
What is the past tense of swither?
The past tense of swither is swithered.

Words near swither in the dictionary

  1. switchtenders
  2. switchy
  3. switchyard
  4. switchyards
  5. swith
  6. swither
  7. swithered
  8. swithering
  9. swithers
  10. swithest
  11. Swithin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swither (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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