wipe

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To clean or dry a surface by rubbing it with a cloth, hand, or similar.

   Melissa wiped her glasses with her shirt.

2. 2
   verb

   To remove something by rubbing, often with 'away', 'off', or 'out'.

   He wiped away his tears and smiled.

3. 3
   verb

   To erase all the data from a disk or device.

   I accidentally wiped my hard drive.

Common collocations

• wipe one's mouth Verb + noun

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.

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