With huge two-handed sway brandished aloft.
--Milton.
2. Influence, weight, or authority that inclines to one side;
as, the sway of desires. --A. Tucker.
3. Preponderance; turn or cast of balance.
Expert When to advance, or stand, or turn the sway
Of battle. --Milton.
4. Rule; dominion; control. --Cowper.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The
post of honor is a private station. --Addison.
5. A switch or rod used by thatchers to bind their work.
[Prov. Eng.] --Halliwell.
Syn: Rule; dominion; power; empire; control; influence;
direction; preponderance; ascendency.
As sparkles from the anvil rise, When heavy hammers
on the wedge are swayed. --Spenser.
2. To influence or direct by power and authority; by
persuasion, or by moral force; to rule; to govern; to
guide.
The will of man is by his reason swayed. --Shak.
She could not sway her house. --Shak.
This was the race To sway the world, and land and
sea subdue. --Dryden.
3. To cause to incline or swing to one side, or backward and
forward; to bias; to turn; to bend; warp; as, reeds swayed
by wind; judgment swayed by passion.
As bowls run true by being made On purpose false,
and to be swayed. --Hudibras.
Let not temporal and little advantages sway you
against a more durable interest. --Tillotson.
4. (Naut.) To hoist; as, to sway up the yards.
Syn: To bias; rule; govern; direct; influence; swing; move;
wave; wield.
The balance sways on our part. --Bacon.
2. To move or swing from side to side; or backward and
forward.
3. To have weight or influence.
The example of sundry churches . . . doth sway much.
--Hooker.
4. To bear sway; to rule; to govern.
Hadst thou swayed as kings should do. --Shak.