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.
verb (used with object),swiped,swip·ing.
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.
verb (used without object),swiped,swip·ing.
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
1730–40; akin to sweep1; cognate with Germanschweifen
(when intr, usually foll by at) informalto hit hard with a sweeping blow
(tr)slangto 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
noun
informala hard blow
an unexpected criticism of someone or something while discussing another subject
Also called: sweepa type of lever for raising and lowering a weight, such as a bucket in a well
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."
v.
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.
