swear blind

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Related to swear blind: swear up and down

swear blind

To make a very serious, solemn pledge, especially that one is telling the truth. Janet has sworn blind that she wasn't the one to betray me, and I believe her.

swear blind

BRITISH or

swear up and down

AMERICAN

If someone swears blind that something is true, they insist that they are telling you the truth. He swore blind that he hadn't taken the money. He swears blind that he bears no grudges against Manchester United for sacking him, but I don't know if I believe him.

swear blind

affirm something in an emphatic manner. British informal

A North American variant of this expression is swear up and down .

swear ˈblind (that)...

(informal) say that something is definitely true: She swore blind that she had not taken the money, and I believe her.

See also: swear

References in periodicals archive ?

You could swear blind that the bus carrying you from the Visitor Centre is about to crash into the mountainside when it veers sharply left before popping mole-like into the mouth of a huge tunnel, and steeply downhill deep inside the mountain.

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An old bus seat was popped into the back, then all you had to do was swear blind to your insurer that the van hadn't been modified for ultra-cheap cover.

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He will swear blind Coca-Cola are still happy, even though their Cup Final doesn't include either half of the Old Firm.

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An owner who'll swear blind he didn't back it even though it shortened from 66-1 to 10-1.

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My children swear blind they're haunted and won't even pass them, never mind look in.

MY SHOUT

It is accepted that at interviews, candidates will swear blind that the job in question - as a cleaner/clerk/chiropodist - is the pinnacle of their ambition, knowing full well that the opposite might be said at another interview tomorrow.

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I would swear blind that I don't put rugby first, ahead of my gorgeous wife Ali and the kids, Olivia and Finley.

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In his case if something is not immediately apparent he'll swear blind that it isn't there but instead of carefully sifting, he'll rummage through the contents like a jumble sale enthusiast.

Dorinda McCann

In the dosh-free zone stand the clueless; the fat, bearded virgins always picked last at school games who swear blind every team in every league will be trying their hardest right until the last kick of the season because they are pros and therefore paid to do just that.

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There are late-thirty somethings who swear blind that the best album ever made was Half Man Half Biscuit's Back in the DHSS.