swipe

/swaɪp/

swipe verb: to grab or bat quickly.

Verb

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

(intransitive) To grab or bat quickly.
- The cat swiped at the shoelace.
(transitive) To strike with a strong blow in a sweeping motion.
(transitive) To scan or register by sliding (a swipecard etc.) through a reader.
- He swiped his card at the door.
(intransitive, transitive) To interact with a touch screen by drawing one's finger rapidly across it.
- Swipe left to hide the toolbar.
- This is the iPhone lock screen with its default Earth wallpaper. To unlock your phone, swipe the slider from left to right.2008, Erica Sadun, Taking Your iPhone to the Max, Apress, →ISBN, page 27
(informal, transitive) To swipe right on (someone) on a dating application.
- Zac Efron needs a date. […] But would the actor resort to apps to find a partner? Joking, he said, “Amazingly, when I signed up for Tinder, nobody swiped me! They thought it was fake … That never happened.”2016 August 2, Lindsay Kimble, “Zac Efron Opens Up About His Dating Woes and Jokes: 'When I Signed Up for Tinder, Nobody Swiped Me!'”, in People
- Yas (Vivian Oparah): That is your truth. And, by the way, your man swiped me on Tinder, like, a week ago. […]
  Eric (Benjamin Sarpong-Broni): Mmm, no, I didn't. I didn't swipe you. […] Or anybody. […] I didn't swipe her.2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane
(informal, transitive) To steal or snatch.
- Hey! Who swiped my lunch?
- "From Miss Hemmingway. Miss Hemmingway! But—but how did they come into her possession?" / "How?" I said. "Because she jolly well stole them. Pinched them! Swiped them![…]"1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “(please specify the page)”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
Synonyms:

pinch, steal, abduct, abstract, appropriate, bag, bandit, bash and grab, bone, boost
(obsolete, slang) To drink.

Noun

swipe (countable and uncountable, plural swipes)

(countable) A quick grab, bat, or other motion with the hand or paw; a sweep.
(countable) A strong blow given with a sweeping motion, as with a bat or club.
(countable) An act of interacting with a touch screen by drawing the finger rapidly across it.
- Some New Yorkers are moving beyond the swipe to venture into flirtatious panel discussions and speed dating sessions.2020 April 18, Alyson Krueger, “Virtual Dating Is the New Normal. Will It Work?”, in The New Yorker
(countable) An act of passing a swipecard through a card reader.
- Owning a car in New York City is seen as a liability by many, especially when a quick Uber ride or the swipe of a MetroCard can easily get you where you need to go.2020 March 13, Ronnie Koenig, “Parking So Prime, the Car Is Optional”, in The New Yorker
(countable, informal) A rough guess; an estimate or swag.
- Take a swipe at the answer, even if you're not sure.
(countable, informal) An attack, insult or critical remark.
- The politician took a swipe at his opponents.
- Biden‘s Twitter account then acknowledged the swipe, quote-tweeting Sanders shortly after the debate saying, “I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up.”2019 December 20, Abbey Marshall, “Sarah Sanders apologizes after mocking Biden’s stutter”, in Politico
(uncountable) Poor, weak beer or other inferior alcoholic beverage; rotgut.
- Woozy with swipe was the only way I could stay down with patience for work.1984, Ronald T. Takaki, Pau Hana: Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii, 1835-1920, →ISBN, page 134
- JJ: Did a lot of people drink? KP: Down here, oh yeah, a lot of them made their own swipe, their own potato and pineapple swipe.1990, Charles Langlas, James Ahia, The People of Kalapana, 1823-1950
Synonyms:

swipes
(countable) An instance of swiping, a kind of ellipsis. See swiping.
- Furthermore, speakers accept the following swipes to varying degrees, with judgments best for (18a), slightly worse for (18b), and worst of all, though still marginally possible, for (18c).2002, Jason Merchant, “Swiping in Germanic”, in Jan-Wouter Zwart and Werner Abraham, editors, Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax, page 294

swipe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

swipe in Marathi

स्वाइप करणे, स्वाइप करण्यासाठी, स्वाईप करण्यासाठी

swipe in Urdu

سوائپ کرنا, سوائپ کریں

More languagesFewer languages

swipe in Bengali: সোয়াইপ করতে, সোয়াইপ করা, সোয়াইপ করার জন্য
swipe in Telugu: స్వైప్ చేయడానికి, స్వైప్ చెయ్యడానికి, స్వైప్ చేయటానికి
swipe in Malayalam: ആഞ്ഞുവീശുക, ആഘാതമേല്പിക്കുക, വീശിയടിക്കുക, ഓങ്ങിയടിക്കുക
swipe in Kannada: ಬೀಸುಹೊಡೆತ, ರಭಸದ ಏಟು, ರಭಸವಾಗಿ ಹೊಡೆ, ಬಲವಾಗಿ ಹೊಡೆ
swipe in Punjabi: ਸਵਾਈਪ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਸਵਾਈਪ ਕਰਨਾ, ਸਵਿੱਪ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
swipe in Gujarati: સ્વાઇપ કરવા માટે, સ્વાઇપ કરવા, સ્વાઈપ કરવા માટે
swipe in Odia: ସ୍ୱାଇପ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ, ସ୍ୱାଇପ୍ କରିବାକୁ, ସ୍ୱାଇପ୍ କରିବା
swipe in Nepali: स्वाइप गर्न, स्वाइप गर्नाका लागि, स्वाइप गर्नका लागि
swipe in Malay: sambar, seret, selak, sakar
swipe in Vietnamese: quẹt

Examples of swipe in a sentence

Maybe I could swipe some Tintex from the five-and-dime.1968, Thomas C. Ryan, 00:48:18 from the start, in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter:
Harry took a swipe at the palace's response to a story published in 2020 suggesting the Sussexes were leaving the royal family because William had bullied them out.2022 December 15, Jack Royston, “Prince Harry throws more accusations at Prince William than ever before”, in Newsweek:
Sung Wha knows it's pineapple swipe they are drinking.1998, Gary Pak, Pak: A Ricepaper Airplane, →ISBN, page 73:
Only the nights—of sitting out in the moonlight drinking the horrible tasting swipe and talking, the thinking about women —remained unchanged.2012, James Jones, The World War II Trilogy, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with swipe

Synonyms of swipe

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of swipe

Forms of swipe

Verb
third-person singular present	swipes
present participle	swiping
past participle	swiped
past	swiped
Noun
plural	swipes

Past tense of swipe: swiped

Plural of swipe: swipes

Origin of swipe

From earlier swip (with a short vowel), from Middle English swippen, swype (“to move violently”), from Old English sweopian, swipian, swippan (“to scourge, strike, beat, lash”), from Proto-West Germanic *swippjan, *swipōn, *swipēn, from Proto-Germanic *swipōną, *swipjaną, *swipāną (“to move”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweyb- (“to bend, sway, swing, sweep, swerve, turn”). Cognate with German schwippen (“sway back and forth”), Danish svippe (“to smack; crack a whip”), Icelandic svipa (“riding crop, whip”). Related to sweep, swoop.

Words formed from swipe

Phrases with swipe

Words that rhyme with swipe

7 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about swipe

What does swipe mean?: Swipe means to grab or bat quickly.
What is swipe in Hindi?: Swipe in Hindi is स्वाइप करना, स्वाइप करें. See Swipe meaning in Hindi.
How do you use swipe in a sentence?: Maybe I could swipe some Tintex from the five-and-dime.
What part of speech is swipe?: Swipe can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce swipe?: Swipe is pronounced /swaɪp/.
What is the past tense of swipe?: The past tense of swipe is swiped.

Words near swipe in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-swipe.ogg.

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