- a lever or handle
- a hard, sweeping blow
- Informal a sweeping motion, as in wiping: give the table a swipe with a rag
- Informal a groom for horses, esp. at a racetrack
- the act or an instance of swiping a magnetically encoded card
Origin of swipe
probably variant, variety of sweeptransitive verb
swiped, swip′ing- Informal
- to hit with a hard, sweeping blow
- to wipe (a rag, cloth, etc.) over (a surface) with a sweeping motion
- Slang to steal; pilfer
- to pass (a credit card or other magnetically encoded card) across or through an electronic device that reads it
Origin of swipe
< ? ON svipa, to whip, make a swift motion, akin to swoop to make a sweeping blow, stroke, or motion
