swooping

Verb

swoop (third-person singular simple present swoops, present participle swooping, simple past and past participle swooped)

1. (intransitive) To fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive.
   • The lone eagle swooped down into the lake, snatching its prey, a small fish.

   Synonyms:

   stoop

2. (intransitive) To move swiftly, as if with a sweeping movement, especially to attack something.
   • The dog had enthusiastically swooped down on the bone.
3. (transitive) To fall on at once and seize; to catch while on the wing.
   • And his Eagles, which can with the same ease as a kite swoops a chicken, snatch up a strong built Chamber of wood 12 foot square, & well crampt & fortified with Iron, with all its furniture, & a man besides, & carry it to the Clouds?Quoted in 1971, The Scriblerian (volumes 4-5, page 2)
4. (transitive) To seize; to catch up; to take with a sweep.
   • Thus the Phyſitian looks with another Eye on the Medicinal hearb, then the grazing Oxe, which ſwoops it in with the common graſs: […]1661, Joseph Glanvill, “An Apology for Philosophy”, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 247
5. (intransitive) To pass with pomp; to sweep.
   • Proude Tamer swoopes along, with such a lustie traine / As fits so brave a flood two Countries that divides: […]1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned...
6. (UK, slang) To search the ground for discarded cigarette butts that can be made into new cigarettes.
   • He was forever diving into dustbins or swooping on to the ground for cigarette ends.1989, Michael Bettsworth, Marking Time: A Prison Memoir, page 32

See all 10 meanings of swoop