swipes

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   dated British slang: weak, watery, or inferior beer

   The tired laborers complained that the cheap swipes tasted mostly of water.

2. 2
   noun

   by extension, something dismissed as weak, dull, or inferior

   The critic rejected the pamphlets as literary swipes with no serious ideas.

A plural noun recorded in late eighteenth-century British slang for weak or inferior beer, probably related to an obsolete swipe meaning 'to gulp down' and ultimately to sweep. Figurative use compares insipid material with watered beer.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images