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Definition of swain in US English:
swain
noun
1literary A young lover or suitor.
- ‘Old and blind, Juliette gave her a lock of Chateaubriand's hair when her eighty-year-old swain died.’
- ‘We all loved Queen Aouda and her handsome and dashing swain, the hero of the piece, Phileas Fogg.’
- ‘Many a desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand.’
- ‘In Lycidas, the poet / swain in the poem, together with the author, anticipate ‘Pastures new’ on the morrow.’
- ‘‘You sound like a lovesick swain,’ she told him, and walked to the window.’
suitor, wooer, worshipper, beau, sweetheart, lover, love, beloved, lady love, boyfriend, girlfriend, young man, young lady, man friend, lady friend, escortView synonyms2archaic A country youth.
countryman, countrywoman, peasant, daughter of the soil, son of the soil, country bumpkin, bumpkin, yokel, country cousinView synonyms
Origin
Late Old English (denoting a young man attendant on a knight), from Old Norse sveinn ‘lad’.
