wipe
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /waɪp/
rhymes: -aɪp
Forms: form: wipes
form: wiping
form: wiped
form: wiped
Etymology: From Middle English wipen, from Old English wīpian (“to wipe, rub, cleanse”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīpōn (“to wipe”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to twist, wind around”). Cognate with German wippen (“to bob”), Swedish veva (“to turn, wind, crank”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍀𐌰𐌽 (weipan, “to wreathe, crown”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”), Sanskrit वेपते (vépate, “to tremble”). More at swivel, swift.
Senses: examples: text: Melissa wiped her glasses with her shirt.
text: I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand.
text: Tom started to wipe his eyes.
text: So they passed through the Palace Gates and were led into a big room with a green carpet and lovely green furniture set with emeralds. The soldier made them all wipe their feet upon a green mat before entering this room, and when they were seated he said politely[…]
ref: 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:
glosses: To move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (Compare rub.)
examples: text: Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: So the plot is that he wipes half the population?
ref: 2019 April 25, Amby Vaingankar, Ambycomics (comic):
glosses: To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; usually followed by away, off, or out.
examples: text: You've wiped grease all over your shirt.
glosses: To smear (a substance) with this kind of motion.
examples: text: The English, which they thinke lye still in wayte to wipe them out of theyr landes.
ref: 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
text: If they by coveyne [covin] or gile be wiped beside their goods.
ref: 1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the Newe Yle Called Utopia: […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for] Abraham Vele, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To cheat; to defraud; to trick; usually followed by out.
examples: text: I had nothing to wipe my bum with.
text: Even if you wipe very carefully, you still have to wash your hands afterward.
glosses: To clean (the anus and buttocks) after defecation.
examples: text: I accidentally wiped my hard drive.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To erase.
topics: business
construction
manufacturing
plumbing
glosses: To make (a joint, as between pieces of lead pipe), by surrounding the junction with a mass of solder, applied in a plastic condition by means of a rag with which the solder is shaped by rubbing.
examples: text: You should wipe that smirk off your face before the boss comes in.
text: Please wipe that look out of your eyes, it's bribing me to doubt myself.
ref: 2008, Adele, First Love:
glosses: To remove an expression from one's face.
glosses: To deperm (a ship).
examples: text: Steve-O tells the camera, “Don’t worry; the next skit’s gonna be amazing”; he then pretends to grab the side of the screen, which “wipes” to the next shot.
ref: 2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 85:
qualifier: video editing
glosses: To perform a transition in which one scene or slide is replaced with another over time along a horizontal axis, as if one scene or slide is a layer being slid off the other.
glosses: To hit or strike.