essuyer

See also: êssuyer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French essuier, from Latin exsūcāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.sɥi.je/

• audio

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Verb

essuyer

1. to wipe, to wipe down
2. (figuratively) to soak up

   A peine nommé, il a essuyé un tweet raciste d’un autre élu.

   He had barely been appointed when he was the target of a racist tweet by another representative.

Conjugation

This verb is part of a large group of -er verbs that conjugate like noyer or ennuyer. These verbs always replace the 'y' with an 'i' before a silent 'e'.

Conjugation of essuyer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	essuyer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	essuyant /e.sɥi.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		essuyé /e.sɥi.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	essuie /e.sɥi/	essuies /e.sɥi/	essuie /e.sɥi/	essuyons /e.sɥi.jɔ̃/	essuyez /e.sɥi.je/	essuient /e.sɥi/
	imperfect	essuyais /e.sɥi.jɛ/	essuyais /e.sɥi.jɛ/	essuyait /e.sɥi.jɛ/	essuyions /e.sɥij.jɔ̃/	essuyiez /e.sɥij.je/	essuyaient /e.sɥi.jɛ/
	past historic2	essuyai /e.sɥi.je/	essuyas /e.sɥi.ja/	essuya /e.sɥi.ja/	essuyâmes /e.sɥi.jam/	essuyâtes /e.sɥi.jat/	essuyèrent /e.sɥi.jɛʁ/
	future	essuierai /e.sɥi.ʁe/	essuieras /e.sɥi.ʁa/	essuiera /e.sɥi.ʁa/	essuierons /e.sɥi.ʁɔ̃/	essuierez /e.sɥi.ʁe/	essuieront /e.sɥi.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	essuierais /e.sɥi.ʁɛ/	essuierais /e.sɥi.ʁɛ/	essuierait /e.sɥi.ʁɛ/	essuierions /e.sɥi.ʁjɔ̃/	essuieriez /e.sɥi.ʁje/	essuieraient /e.sɥi.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	essuie /e.sɥi/	essuies /e.sɥi/	essuie /e.sɥi/	essuyions /e.sɥij.jɔ̃/	essuyiez /e.sɥij.je/	essuient /e.sɥi/
	imperfect2	essuyasse /e.sɥi.jas/	essuyasses /e.sɥi.jas/	essuyât /e.sɥi.ja/	essuyassions /e.sɥi.ja.sjɔ̃/	essuyassiez /e.sɥi.ja.sje/	essuyassent /e.sɥi.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	essuie /e.sɥi/	—	essuyons /e.sɥi.jɔ̃/	essuyez /e.sɥi.je/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• essuie-glace
• essuie-mains
• essuie-tout
• essuyage

 

Related terms

• suc
• ressuyer

Paronyms

• essayer

Further reading

• “essuyer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• ressuyé