Word.ws English Dictionary

swabs

swabs is the plural of swab.

swabs is the third-person singular simple present indicative of swab.

Meaning of swab

Noun

swab (plural swabs)

  1. 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. A sample taken with a swab (piece of absorbent material).
  3. A piece of material used for cleaning or sampling other items like musical instruments or guns.
  4. A mop, especially on a ship.
  5. (slang) A sailor; a swabby.
    • As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 25, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    swabby
  6. (slang) A naval officer's epaulet.

See all 8 meanings of swab

Proper noun capitalized: Swabs

Swabs

  1. (plural) plural of Swab

Phrases with swabs

Words that rhyme with swabs

Questions about swabs

What is swabs the plural of?
Swabs is the plural of swab.
What part of speech is swabs?
Swabs is a proper noun.

Words near swabs in the dictionary

  1. Swabian Turkey
  2. Swabianness
  3. Swabians
  4. Swabish
  5. Swabishes
  6. swabs
  7. swabs down
  8. Swabue
  9. Swaby
  10. Swabys
  11. swachh

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swabs (page history and authors); Swabs (page history and authors); swab (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “swabs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swabs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.