noun
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a person who uses a swab
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a device designed for swabbing
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slang an uncouth fellow
Etymology
Origin of swabber
1585–95; < Dutch zwabber; compare Middle Low German swabben to splash in water or filth
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As the days passed, the first colleague through the line each morning would text a scouting report to the rest of us about the aggressiveness of the swabber.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 18, 2022
The swabber working in the mobile Covid testing van parked at Conference House Park, Jesse Henry, said he was not vaccinated.
From New York Times • Jul. 23, 2021
Maybe five seconds per nostril with a six-inch swabber that reaches the sinus cavity where COVID-19 likes to live.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 7, 2020
Then, too, there were the purser, the quarter-masters, and the swabber.
From The Golden Galleon BEING A NARRATIVE OF THE ADVENTURES OF MASTER GILBERT OGLANDER, AND OF HOW, IN THE YEAR 1591, HE FOUGHT UNDER THE GALLANT SIR by Leighton, Robert
No man shall play at cards or dice either for his apparel or arms upon pain of being disarmed and made a swabber of the ship.
From Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816 Publications Of The Navy Records Society Vol. XXIX. by Corbett, Julian S. (Julian Stafford)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
