wipe

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   rub with a circular motion

   wipe the blackboard

2. 2
   verb

   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.

3. 3
   verb

   To smear (a substance) with this kind of motion.

   You've wiped grease all over your shirt.

4. 4
   verb

   To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; usually followed by away, off, or out.

   Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon.

5. 5
   verb

   To clean (the anus, buttocks and/or genitals) after defecation or urination.

   I had nothing to wipe my bum with.

6. 6
   verb

   To erase.

   I accidentally wiped my hard drive.

7. 7
   verb

   To remove an expression from one's face.

   You should wipe that smirk off your face before the boss comes in.

8. 8
   verb

   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.

   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.

Etymology

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.