Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use swab in a sentence

14 example sentences · noun, verb

Swab means a small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access. Example: “Insert a clean swab into your nose.”

Examples of swab by meaning

verbTo use a swab on something, or clean something with a swab.

  • swab the deck of a ship
  • He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

More sentences with swab

  • Insert a clean swab into your nose.From the entry clean
  • Just swab her with a little more of our patented homemade poultice.2017 September 4, Jeff Kauffmann, “The Talented Mr. Dingleberry” (17:28 from the start), in American Dad!, season 14, episode 21, spoken…. From the entry poultice
  • Pancoronavirus RNA was observed in seven cases among 98 nasal swab samples.2016 November 18, Heydar Khalili Bagaloy, “Detection of pancoronavirus using PCR in Camelus dromedarius in Iran (first report)”, in…. From the entry pancoronavirus
  • Stipple several times on your surface until the swab is too dry, then reload and reblot.2006, Maureen McNaughton, The Brushstroke Handbook, North Light Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 14. From the entry reblot
  • The men first stored their hammocks, then went about sweeping and swabbing down the decks.2003, M. Hill Goodspeed, U.S. Navy: A Complete History. From the entry offcoming
  • A sucker for the Q-tip eargasm, I scoffed at the warning on the box: "Do not use swab in ear canal."2006 April, Kevin Cook, “Are You a Clean Freak?”, in Men's Health. From the entry eargasm
  • Try Swabplus, the new cotton swabs filled with makeup-remover.2002 December 15, Lifeline (Daily News), page 8. From the entry makeup-remover
  • Everything is washed down with hosewater, swabbed down with swabs.1942, Harold S. Ingham, Fire and water. From the entry shiply
  • Virus was detected in cloacal swabs at 1–2 dpi, and peaked at 14 dpi indicating enterotropism of the virus and its early shedding in feces.2015 December 12, “A Newly Emergent Turkey Arthritis Reovirus Shows Dominant Enteric Tropism and Induces Significantly Elevated Innate…. From the entry enterotropism
  • The main reason for the high efficiencies obtained over previous piggings can be attributed to the vented swabs with the check valve.1955, American Gas Association, Proceedings, volume 37, page 1083. From the entry pigging
  • Changes in the condition of these cells during the menstrual cycle can be detected by swabbing the lining and looking at the cells under a microscope.1991, Richard Evan Jones, Human Reproductive Biology, →ISBN, page 61. From the entry vagina
  • Do you feel like you’ve been hit with the ol’ spicy cough, but no matter how deep you put the little swab up your nussy, your RAT test returns negative?2022 December 12, Michael Di Iorio, “Why Do Our RATs Come Up Negative Even When We’re Coughing Up The Devil Himself?”, in Pedestrian…. From the entry nussy

Meaning of swab

  1. noun A small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access.
  2. noun A sample taken with a swab (piece of absorbent material).
  3. noun A piece of material used for cleaning or sampling other items like musical instruments or guns.

Full definition of swab

Questions about swab in a sentence

How do you use swab in a sentence?
Swab is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Insert a clean swab into your nose.”
What is a short sentence with swab?
“swab the deck of a ship”
What does swab mean?
Swab means a small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swab (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use swab in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/swab. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.