Word.ws English Dictionary

wiping

/ˈwaɪpɪŋ/

wiping is the present participle and gerund of wipe.

Noun

wiping (plural wipings)

  1. The act by which something is wiped.
    • multiple wipings of a computer's hard disk
  2. Material wiped off something.
    • analysis of wipings taken from a suspect's hands
  3. (slang) A thrashing.

Meaning of wipe

Verb

wipe (third-person singular simple present wipes, present participle wiping, simple past and past participle wiped)

  1. (transitive) 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.
  2. (transitive) To smear (a substance) with this kind of motion.
    • You've wiped grease all over your shirt.
  3. (transitive) 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...
  4. (ambitransitive) To clean (the anus, buttocks and/or genitals) after defecation or urination.
    • I had nothing to wipe my bum with.
  5. (transitive) To erase.
    • I accidentally wiped my hard drive.
  6. (transitive) 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.

See all 20 meanings of wipe

Forms of wiping

pluralwipings

Phrases with wiping

Words that rhyme with wiping

Questions about wiping

What does wiping mean?
Wiping means the act by which something is wiped.
What is wiping the present participle and gerund of?
Wiping is the present participle and gerund of wipe.
What part of speech is wiping?
Wiping is a noun.
How do you pronounce wiping?
Wiping is pronounced /ˈwaɪpɪŋ/.
What is the plural of wiping?
The plural of wiping is wipings.

Words near wiping in the dictionary

  1. wipeys
  2. Wipf
  3. Wipfs
  4. wiphala
  5. wiphalas
  6. wiping
  7. wiping away
  8. wiping down
  9. wiping off
  10. wiping oneself
  11. wiping out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wiping (page history and authors); wipe (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-au-wiping.ogg.

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