to swear by
- phrasal verb
- /swɛr baɪ/
- Many athletes swear by their trainers, believing they are essential for success.
- many people swear by
- people swear by
- swear by the stuff
You may try a very popular technique that therapists swear by.
- You may try a very popular technique that therapists swear by.
- I live and swear by this.
- But Aussies swear by it and I think it's like Stockholm syndrome or something.
- And a lot of my skin care junkie friends swear by this.
- I have a couple of girlfriends who swear by men's razors in terms of the closeness of the shave.
- Hardcore endurance junkies swear by them.
- I've got a list on my phone that's called Short Trip Packing List and I swear by it.
- So that was a really long way to intro this very simple foundation technique that a lot of makeup artists swear by.
- I know so many people who swear by plants in their living space and it's green and it's pretty and it's alive and I love having plants in my house.
- It's the actual, you know, fruit themselves, Valerian, often touted as a beneficial sleep aid, and lots of people swear by it too.
- And some people it's they maybe they still swear by it, I guess.
- And he said they like, really work and he swears by them.
Examples
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I'm one of the people that swear by it purely because I love the the way it feels on my skin.
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Thousands of people swear by mnemonic devices as a means of improving memory.
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And yet, some people swear by it.
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I simply swear by it!
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I never played it, but I have friends who swear by the game.
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I'm in the beauty business, and I swear by this method.
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My Aunt Judy swore by it.
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A lot of horticulturists in Europe and England have pretty much sworn by this as their stand alone mulching option.
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This is the refined brow sculpt and honestly, I swear by this stuff.
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My brother-in-law swears by it and thinks it is the bee's knees.
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Synonyms
To believe someone will do what they say
To trust that a person or thing is good
To trust someone to help you when you need them
Antonyms
How Confident
Surface Forms
Morphology
swear + by
There is a clear connection between 'swear' (to declare or assert strongly) and 'by' (indicating endorsement), so the meaning 'to have strong confidence in / to endorse something' is partially derivable from the parts. However, 'swear' also commonly means 'to use offensive language' and the endorsement sense may not be known to all B1 learners without prior exposure, so the relation is not fully predictable.
Etymology
The phrase swear by comes from the old idea of making a serious promise while touching something you trust, like a holy book; the word swear is the promise and by shows the thing used as proof. So when someone 'swears by' a remedy or habit, they mean they trust it completely, which is why the phrase means 'to have great confidence in' something today.