swipe
- a strong, sweeping blow, as with a cricket bat or golf club.
- Informal. a swing of the arm in order to strike somebody; punch.
- a sideswipe.
- Informal. a critical or cutting remark.
- a leverlike device for raising or lowering a weight, especially a bucket in a well; sweep.
- an act or instance of swiping: You can debit your checking account with just a swipe of your card.
- Also called rub·ber. Horse Racing. a person who rubs down horses in a stable; groom.
- to strike with a sweeping blow.
- Informal. to steal: He'll swipe anything that isn't nailed down.
- to slide (a magnetic card) quickly through an electronic device that reads data.
- Digital Technology. to move a finger or fingers, or a stylus, across an area on (a touchscreen) in order to execute a command: Put your finger on the arrow and swipe the screen to the right to unlock your phone.
- to make a sweeping stroke.
- to slide a magnetic card through an electronic device.
- Digital Technology. to move the fingers across a touchscreen: Swipe to the right to close the article.
Origin of swipe
Related Words for swipe
slap, pilfer, sneak, blow, knock, lick, clip, sock, clout, swat, smack, cuff, rap, wallop, strike, clump, wipe, bash, nab, copExamples from the Web for swipe
Contemporary Examples of swipe
Swipe, pass judgment, see who likes you and see if anyone likes you back.
We are going through and looking for people that we would honestly ‘swipe right’ for.
“One swipe with a crowbar and he would have been down,” Sasha said.
I Heard About the Latest Crazed Shooter While I Watched the World Cup with Guys He Almost KilledDaniel Genis
July 1, 2014
Flawless skin, perfect hair, and bright white teeth are all just a swipe away.
The crook then produces a MetroCard of his own and offers to swipe the would-be traveler through—for a premium price.
Historical Examples of swipe
And if you don't cough up a thousand and let me go, I'll swipe anything in sight.
Shorty McCabeSewell Ford
Not that I swipe the whiskey, just sorry because I gets sick!
Slave Narratives, OklahomaVarious
He goes to make a swipe at figure on other side of stairs—sees Rusty.
The Ghost BreakerPaul Dickey
The swipe I took at him should have swept him over, but he got his coils around me.
VigorishGordon Randall Garrett
Still, how was he to know they were going to swipe his idea?
Carl and the Cotton GinSara Ware Bassett
swipe
- (when intr, usually foll by at) informal to hit hard with a sweeping blow
- (tr) slang to steal
- (tr) to pass a machine-readable card, such as a credit card, debit card, etc, through a machine that electronically interprets the information encoded, usu. in a magnetic strip, on the card
- informal a hard blow
- an unexpected criticism of someone or something while discussing another subject
- Also called: sweep a type of lever for raising and lowering a weight, such as a bucket in a well
Word Origin for swipe
Word Origin and History for swipe
1807, "a driving stroke made with the arms in full swing," perhaps a dialectal variant of sweep (n.), or in part from obsolete swip "a stroke, blow" (c.1200), from Proto-Germanic *swip-, related to Old English swipu "a stick, whip." Other possible sources or influences are Middle English swope "to sweep with broad movements" (in reference to brooms, swords, etc.), from Old English swapan; obsolete swaip "stroke, blow;" or obsolete swape "oar, pole."
1825, from swipe (v.). The slang sense of "steal, pilfer" appeared 1885, American English; earliest use in prison jargon:
The blokes in the next cell, little Charley Ames and the Sheeney Kid, they was hot to try it, and swiped enough shoe-lining out of shop No. 5, where they worked, to make us all breeches to the stripes. ["Lippincott's Magazine," vol. 35, June 1885]
Meaning "run a credit card" is 1990s. Related: Swiped; swiper; swiping.