swipe
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /swaɪp/
rhymes: -aɪp
Forms: form: swipes
form: swiping
form: swiped
form: swiped
Etymology: From earlier swip (with a short vowel), from Middle English swippen, swipen (“to move violently”), from Old English swipian, sweopian, swippan (“to scourge, strike, beat, lash”), from Proto-West Germanic *swippjan, *swipōn, *swipēn, from Proto-Germanic *swipōną, *swipjaną, *swipāną (“to move”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweyb- (“to bend, turn, swerve, sway, swing, sweep”). Cognate with German schwippen (“to whip”), Danish svippe (“to smack; crack a whip”), Icelandic svipa (“to whip; move swiftly”). Related to sweep, swoop.
Senses: examples: text: The cat swiped at the shoelace.
glosses: To grab or bat quickly.
glosses: To strike with a strong blow in a sweeping motion.
examples: text: He swiped his card at the door.
glosses: To scan or register by sliding (a swipecard etc.) through a reader.
examples: text: Swipe left to hide the toolbar.
text: This is the iPhone lock screen with its default Earth wallpaper. To unlock your phone, swipe the slider from left to right.
ref: 2008, Erica Sadun, Taking Your iPhone to the Max, Apress, →ISBN, page 27:
text: But really, she is just over it all: the swiping, the monotonous getting-to-know-you conversations and the self-doubt that creeps in when one of her matches fizzles.
ref: 2022 August 31, Catherine Pearson, “‘A Decade of Fruitless Searching’: The Toll of Dating App Burnout”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
topics: computing
engineering
graphical-user-interface
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
coordinate_terms: scroll
glosses: To interact with a touch screen by drawing one's finger rapidly across it.
examples: text: Zac Efron needs a date. […] But would the actor resort to apps to find a partner? Joking, he said, “Amazingly, when I signed up for Tinder, nobody swiped me! They thought it was fake … That never happened.”
ref: 2016 August 2, Lindsay Kimble, “Zac Efron Opens Up About His Dating Woes and Jokes: 'When I Signed Up for Tinder, Nobody Swiped Me!'”, in People:
text: Yas (Vivian Oparah): That is your truth. And, by the way, your man swiped me on Tinder, like, a week ago. […]
Eric (Benjamin Sarpong-Broni): Mmm, no, I didn't. I didn't swipe you. […] Or anybody. […] I didn't swipe her.
ref: 2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane:
glosses: To swipe right on (someone) on a dating application.
examples: text: Hey! Who swiped my lunch?
text: “From Miss Hemmingway. Miss Hemmingway! But—but how did they come into her possession?”
“How?” I said. “Because she jolly well stole them. Pinched them! Swiped them! […]”
ref: 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “(please specify the page)”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN:
text: Maybe I could swipe some Tintex from the five-and-dime.
ref: 1968, Thomas C. Ryan, 00:48:18 from the start, in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter:
synonyms: word: pinch
word: steal
word: abduct
word: abstract
word: appropriate
word: bag
word: bandit
word: bash and grab
word: bone
word: boost
word: burgle
word: burglarize
word: borrow
word: cheat
word: chore
word: commandeer
word: confiscate
word: convert
word: cop
word: cozen
word: crib
word: embezzle
word: filch
word: fleece
word: flog
word: gaffle
word: gilravage
word: half-inch
word: heave
word: heist
word: jack
word: kidnap
word: knock off
word: kipe
word: kyper
word: liberate
word: lift
word: loot
word: make off with
word: mill
word: misappropriate
word: mooch
word: moonlight requisition
word: nick
word: nip
word: own
word: peculate
word: pickpocket
word: pilfer
word: pinch
word: pillage
word: pirate
word: plunder
word: poach
word: pocket
word: prig
word: purloin
word: raid
word: relieve
word: rape
word: ransack
word: reave
word: rip
word: rip off
word: rob
word: run off with
word: snag
word: snatch
word: sniggle
word: snitch
word: swindle
word: swipe
word: thieve
word: walk off with
glosses: To steal or snatch.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To drink.
Derived terms: sideswipe
swipe left
swipe right
swipe-tab