swipe
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: computing
engineering
graphical-user-interface
mathematics
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
sciences
transport
Etymology: From earlier swip (with a short vowel), from Middle English swippen, swype (“to move violently”), from Old English sweopian, swipian, 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, sway, swing, sweep, swerve, turn”). Cognate with German schwippen (“sway back and forth”), Danish svippe (“to smack; crack a whip”), Icelandic svipa (“riding crop, whip”). Related to sweep, swoop.
Inflected forms:
form: swipes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: swiping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: swiped
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: swiped
pos: verb
tags: past
form: swipes
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To grab or bat quickly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The cat swiped at the shoelace.
gloss: To strike with a strong blow in a sweeping motion.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To scan or register by sliding (a swipecard etc.) through a reader.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He swiped his card at the door.
gloss: To interact with a touch screen by drawing one's finger rapidly across it.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: Swipe left to hide the toolbar.
This is the iPhone lock screen with its default Earth wallpaper. To unlock your phone, swipe the slider from left to right.
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.
gloss: To swipe right on (someone) on a dating application.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: 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.”
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.
gloss: To steal or snatch.
pos: verb
tags: informal
transitive
examples: Hey! Who swiped my lunch?
"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![…]"
Maybe I could swipe some Tintex from the five-and-dime.
gloss: To drink.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
slang
gloss: A quick grab, bat, or other motion with the hand or paw; a sweep.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: A strong blow given with a sweeping motion, as with a bat or club.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: An act of interacting with a touch screen by drawing the finger rapidly across it.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: Some New Yorkers are moving beyond the swipe to venture into flirtatious panel discussions and speed dating sessions.
gloss: An act of passing a swipecard through a card reader.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: Owning a car in New York City is seen as a liability by many, especially when a quick Uber ride or the swipe of a MetroCard can easily get you where you need to go.
gloss: A rough guess; an estimate or swag.
pos: noun
tags: countable
informal
examples: Take a swipe at the answer, even if you're not sure.
gloss: An attack, insult or critical remark.
pos: noun
tags: countable
informal
examples: The politician took a swipe at his opponents.
Biden‘s Twitter account then acknowledged the swipe, quote-tweeting Sanders shortly after the debate saying, “I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up.”
Harry took a swipe at the palace's response to a story published in 2020 suggesting the Sussexes were leaving the royal family because William had bullied them out.
gloss: Poor, weak beer or other inferior alcoholic beverage; rotgut.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Woozy with swipe was the only way I could stay down with patience for work.
JJ: Did a lot of people drink? KP: Down here, oh yeah, a lot of them made their own swipe, their own potato and pineapple swipe.
Sung Wha knows it's pineapple swipe they are drinking. Hoping that they might sell him some of the stuff, he approaches them with the dollar bill out. One worker, sucking on a fat, wet stub of a cigar, waves off the offer and shakes his head: no we aren't selling the swipe, the swipe is for us to drink and enjoy.
Only the nights—of sitting out in the moonlight drinking the horrible tasting swipe and talking, the thinking about women —remained unchanged.
Derived words: sideswipe
swipeable
swipe left
swipe right
swipe-tab
swipey
swipper
unswiped
swipe card
swipe file
Translations: