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
For the duty even of a swabber, he does not consider himself too high, but washes the deck most delicately clean.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847 by Various
No, good swabber; I am to hull here a little longer.—
From Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, William
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.
