swipe

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪp

Verb

swipe (third-person singular simple present swipes, present participle swiping, simple past and past participle swiped)

1. (transitive) To steal or snatch.

   Hey! Who swiped my lunch?

   • 1968, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, 00:48:18:

     "Maybe I could swipe some Tintex from the five-and-dime."

2. (transitive) To scan or register by sliding something through a reader.

   He swiped his card at the door.

3. (intransitive) To grab or bat quickly.

   The cat swiped at the shoelace.

Translations

to snatch

• Dutch: jatten (nl)
• Finnish: napata (fi)
• German: klauen (de), stibitzen (de)
• Italian: fregare (it)

• Latin: surripere (la)
• Portuguese: surripar (pt)
• Russian: стянуть (ru) (stjanútʹ) pf., украсть (ru) (ukrástʹ) pf., стащить (ru) (staščítʹ) pf., спереть (ru) (sperétʹ) pf.

to slide through a reader

• Finnish: pyyhkäistä (fi), höylätä (fi)
• French: glisser (fr)
• German: einlesen (de), durchziehen (de)
• Italian: passare (it)

• Latin: scandere (la)
• Russian: проводить (ru) (provodítʹ) impf. , провести (ru) (provestí) pf. (пла́стиковую ка́рту че́рез счи́тывающее устро́йство)

to grab quickly

• Finnish: kaapaista (fi)

Noun

swipe (countable and uncountable; plural swipes)

1. (countable) A quick grab, bat, or other motion with the hand or paw; A sweep.
2. (countable) A strong blow given with a sweeping motion, as with a bat or club.
3. (countable, informal) A rough guess; an estimate or swag.

   Take a swipe at the answer, even if you're not sure.

4. (uncountable) Poor, weak beer; small beer.

Anagrams

• wipes