1 a formal promise to do sth or a formal statement that sth is true:
to take / swear an oath of allegiance * Before giving evidence, witnesses in court have to take the oath (= promise to tell the truth). * All members had to swear a solemn oath never to reveal the secrets of the organization. * You are bound by oath to tell the truth.
2 (old-fashioned) an offensive word or phrase used to express anger, surprise, etc.; a swear word:
She heard the sound of breaking glass, followed by a muttered oath.
IDIOMS
on / under oath (law) having made a formal promise to tell the truth in a court of law:
Is she prepared to give evidence on oath? * The judge reminded the witness that he was still under oath. * You have sworn under oath that you never met this man.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for oath is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does oath appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — oath appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
