wipe
/waɪp/
wipe verb: to move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (Compare rub.).
Verb (1)
wipe (third-person singular simple present wipes, present participle wiping, simple past and past participle wiped)
- To move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (Compare rub.)
- Melissa wiped her glasses with her shirt.
- I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand.
- To smear (a substance) with this kind of motion.
- You've wiped grease all over your shirt.
- To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; usually followed by away, off, or out.
- Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon.1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- So the plot is that he wipes half the population?2019 April 25, Amby Vaingankar, Ambycomics (comic)
- To clean (the anus, buttocks and/or genitals) after defecation or urination.
- I had nothing to wipe my bum with.
- Even if you wipe very carefully, you still have to wash your hands afterward.
- To erase.
- I accidentally wiped my hard drive.
- To make (a joint, as between pieces of lead pipe), by surrounding the junction with a mass of solder, applied in a plastic condition by means of a rag with which the solder is shaped by rubbing.
- To remove an expression from one's face.
- You should wipe that smirk off your face before the boss comes in.
- Please wipe that look out of your eyes, it's bribing me to doubt myself.2008, Adele, First Love
- To deperm (a ship).
- To perform a transition in which one scene or slide is replaced with another over time along a horizontal axis, as if one scene or slide is a layer being slid off the other.
- Steve-O tells the camera, “Don’t worry; the next skit’s gonna be amazing”; he then pretends to grab the side of the screen, which “wipes” to the next shot.2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 85
- To hit or strike.
- To cheat; to defraud; to trick; usually followed by out.
- The English, which they thinke lye still in wayte to wipe them out of theyr landes.1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […]...
- If they by coveyne [covin] or gile be wiped beside their goods.1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the...
Noun (1)
wipe (plural wipes)
- The act of wiping something.
- multiple wipes of a computer's hard disk
- A soft piece of cloth or cloth-like material used for wiping.
- When on a plane or train, don't take anything into the bathroom except baby, a changing pad, a diaper, a travel packet of wipes, and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Always use a wipe on the area before you put your baby down.2009, Mary Ann Zoellner, Alicia Ybarbo, Today's Moms: Essentials for Surviving Baby's First Year, page 58
- A handkerchief.
- "Now, my kiveys, shy up your castors, tie your bird's-eye wipes to the stakes, and go to work."1883, London Society, volume 43, page 101
- All fighting coves you too must know, / Ben Caunt as well as Bendigo, / And to each mill be sure to go, / […] And you must sport a blue billy, / Or a yellow wipe […]1859, Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, page 54
- A kind of film transition where one shot replaces another by travelling from one side of the frame to another or with a special shape.
- Synonyms:
- wipeoff
- A sarcastic remark; a reproof, a jibe.
- I could not help giving Metcalfe a wipe for his lamentations, observing I should have thought he had enough to attend to at home.1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 273
- A blow or swipe; the act of striking somebody or something.
- He rode close up to a French officer, and so much in advance of his men that the Frenchman thought he was going to surrender, and dropped his sword, when Penrice gave him a wipe over his head.1894, William Tomkinson, James Tomkinson, The Diary of a Cavalry Officer in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns 1809-1815, page 48
Noun (2)
wipe (plural wipes)
- A lapwing, especially a northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus).
Verb (2)
wipe (third-person singular simple present wipes, present participle wiping, simple past and past participle wiped)
- To have all members of a party die in a single campaign, event, or battle; to be wiped out.
- If you try to fight that boss underprepared, you're definitely gonna wipe.
Noun (3)
wipe (plural wipes)
wipe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
wipe in Hindi
- to rub in order to remove surface substance
- मिटाना miṭānā, पोंछना põchnā
wipe in Tamil
- to rub in order to remove surface substance
- துடை tuṭai
wipe in Marathi
- to wipe, cleanse by rubbing
- पुसणे pusṇe
wipe in Urdu
- to rub in order to remove surface substance
- مٹانا miṭānā
More languagesFewer languages
- wipe in Bengali
- মুছা mucha
- wipe in Telugu
- తుడుచు tuḍucu
- wipe in Malayalam
- തുടയ്ക്കുക tuṭaykkuka, തുടക്കുക tuṭakkuka, തോർത്തുക tōṟttuka, നുടക്കുക nuṭakkuka
- wipe in Kannada
- ಒರಸು orasu
- wipe in Punjabi
- ਪੂੰਝਣਾ pūñjhṇā
- wipe in Gujarati
- લૂછવું lūchvũ
- wipe in Odia
- ପୋଛିବା, ପୋଛିଦେବା
- wipe in Sanskrit
- मृज् mṛj, मार्ष्टि mā́rṣṭi, मर्जयति marjáyati
- wipe in Assamese
- মচা mosa, মোছা müsa
- wipe in Nepali
- पुछ्नु puchnu, मेट्नु meṭnu
- wipe in Arabic
- مَسَحَ masaḥa
- wipe in Malay
- lap
- wipe in Indonesian
- hapus, seka, basmi, sapu bersih
- wipe in Persian
- پاک کردن pâk kardan, ستردن setordan
- wipe in Thai
- เช็ด chét
- wipe in Vietnamese
- lau, chùi, lau sạch, chùi sạch
- wipe in Myanmar
- သုတ် sut
Examples of wipe in a sentence
- Tom started to wipe his eyes.
- The soldier made them all wipe their feet upon a green mat before entering this room, and when they were seated he said politely[…]1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:
Synonyms of wipe
Forms of wipe
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | wipes |
| present participle | wiping |
| past participle | wiped |
| past | wiped |
| Noun | |
| plural | wipes |
Origin of wipe
From Middle English wipen, from Old English wīpian (“to wipe, rub, cleanse”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīpōn (“to wipe”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyp- (“to twist, wind around”). Cognate with German wippen (“to bob”), Swedish veva (“to turn, wind, crank”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍀𐌰𐌽 (weipan, “to wreathe, crown”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”), Sanskrit वेपते (vépate, “to tremble”). More at swivel, swift.
Compare Swedish vipa, Danish vibe (“lapwing”).
From wipe out (verb) and wipeout (noun) by shortening.
Words formed from wipe
- party wipe
- asswipe
- baby wipe
- barn door wipe
- clock wipe
- data wipe
- flip wipe
- handi-wipe
- memory-wipe
- piewipe
- sanitizing wipe
- sky the wipe
- wet wipe
- wipe away
- wipe-breech
- wipe down
- wipe-down
- wipe off
- wipe oneself
- wipe-out
- wipe out
- wipeout
- wiper
- wipe somebody's eye
- wipe someone's eye
- wipe someone's nose
- wipe the floor
- wipe the floor with someone
- wipe the slate clean
- wipe the smile off someone's face
- wipe up
- wipe warmer
Phrases with wipe
Words that rhyme with wipe
Questions about wipe
- What does wipe mean?
- Wipe means to move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (Compare rub.).
- What is wipe in Hindi?
- Wipe in Hindi is मिटाना (miṭānā), पोंछना (põchnā). See Wipe meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use wipe in a sentence?
- Tom started to wipe his eyes.
- What part of speech is wipe?
- Wipe can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce wipe?
- Wipe is pronounced /waɪp/.
- What is the past tense of wipe?
- The past tense of wipe is wiped.
Words near wipe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wipe (page history and authors); पुसणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); মুছা (Bengali) (page history and authors); തുടക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಒರಸು (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਪੂੰਝਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); wipe (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); मर्जयति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); पुछ्नु (Nepali) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wipe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wipe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wipe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.