Five of Swords
Upright
Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these.
Reversed
The same; burial and obsequies.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §2The picture
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.
Older readings
An attack on the fortune of the Querent. Reversed: A sign of sorrow and mourning.
A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Part III §4. Waite collected these and says they often disagree with the main meanings.Waite wrote in 1911 and some of his meanings show it. Tarot is a tradition of reflection, not a prediction, and no card decides anything for you.