swearing

From Middle English sweryng; equivalent to swear +‎ -ing.

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• Rhymes: -ɛəɹɪŋ

swearing

1. present participle and gerund of swear
   • 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:

     Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

swearing (countable and uncountable, plural swearings)

1. The act of swearing, or making an oath.
   • 1693 (date written), D. F. [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], An Essay upon Projects, London: […] R. R. for Tho[mas] Cockerill, […], published 1697, →OCLC:

     No man is believed a jot the more for all the asseverations, damnings, and swearings he makes.

• Wearings, Winegars, Wasinger, resawing, wearings, Wiganers