wipe

English

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /waɪp/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪp

Etymology 1

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.

Verb

wipe (third-person singular simple present wipes, present participle wiping, simple past and past participle wiped)

  1. (transitive) To move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (Compare rub.)
    Melissa wiped her glasses with her shirt.
    I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand.
    Tom started to wipe his eyes.
    • 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M. Hill Co., →OCLC:
      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 […]
  2. (transitive) To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; usually followed by away, off, or out.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon.
    • 2019 April 25, Amby Vaingankar, Ambycomics‎ (comic):
      So the plot is that he wipes half the population?
  3. (transitive) To smear (a substance) with this kind of motion.
    You've wiped grease all over your shirt.
  4. (obsolete) To cheat; to defraud; to trick; usually followed by out.
  5. (transitive, intransitive) To clean (the buttocks) after defecation.
    I had nothing to wipe my bum with.
    Even if you wipe very carefully, you still have to wash your hands afterward.
  6. (transitive, computing) To erase.
    I accidentally wiped my hard drive.
  7. (transitive, plumbing) 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.
  8. (figurative) To remove an expression from one's face.
    You should wipe that smirk off your face before the boss comes in.
    • 2008, Adele, First Love:
      Please wipe that look out of your eyes, it's bribing me to doubt myself.
  9. (transitive) To deperm (a ship).
  10. (video editing) 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.
    • 2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 85:
      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.
Translations

Noun

wipe (plural wipes)

  1. The act of wiping something.
    multiple wipes of a computer's hard disk
  2. A soft piece of cloth or cloth-like material used for wiping.
    Hyponym: wet wipe
    • 2009, Mary Ann Zoellner, Alicia Ybarbo, Today's Moms: Essentials for Surviving Baby's First Year, page 58:
      When on a plane or train, don't take anything into the bathroom except baby, a changing pad, a diaper, a travel packet of wipes, and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Always use a wipe on the area before you put your baby down.
  3. (UK, slang, obsolete) A handkerchief.
    • 1883, London Society, volume 43, page 101:
      "Now, my kiveys, shy up your castors, tie your bird's-eye wipes to the stakes, and go to work."
    • 1859, Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, page 54:
      All fighting coves you too must know, / Ben Caunt as well as Bendigo, / And to each mill be sure to go, / […] And you must sport a blue billy, / Or a yellow wipe […]
  4. A kind of film transition where one shot replaces another by travelling from one side of the frame to another or with a special shape.
  5. (obsolete) A sarcastic remark; a reproof, a jibe.
    • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 273:
      I could not help giving Metcalfe a wipe for his lamentations, observing I should have thought he had enough to attend to at home.
  6. (UK, slang, obsolete) A blow or swipe; the act of striking somebody or something.
    • 1894, William Tomkinson, James Tomkinson, The Diary of a Cavalry Officer in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns 1809-1815, page 48:
      He rode close up to a French officer, and so much in advance of his men that the Frenchman thought he was going to surrender, and dropped his sword, when Penrice gave him a wipe over his head.
Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Compare Swedish vipa, Danish vibe (“lapwing”).

Noun

wipe (plural wipes)

  1. A lapwing, especially a northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus).

Etymology 3

From wipe out (verb) and wipeout (noun) by shortening.

Verb

wipe (third-person singular simple present wipes, present participle wiping, simple past and past participle wiped)

  1. (intransitive, roleplaying games, video games) To have all members of a party die in a single campaign, event, or battle; to be wiped out.
    If you try to fight that boss underprepared, you're definitely gonna wipe.

Noun

wipe (plural wipes)

  1. (roleplaying games, video games) An instance of all members of a party dying in a single campaign, event, or battle; a wipeout.
    Synonym: TPK
Derived terms

Middle English

Verb

wipe

  1. Alternative form of wipen
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