Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To subject to light rubbing or friction, as with a cloth or paper, in order to clean or dry.
- v. To clean or dry by rubbing: wiped my feet before I went inside.
- v. To rub, move, or pass (a cloth, for example) over a surface.
- v. To remove by or as if by rubbing: wipe off dirt; wipe away grease.
- v. To blot out completely, as from the memory.
- v. To spread or apply by or as if by wiping: wiped furniture polish over the table.
- v. To form (a joint) in plumbing by spreading solder with a piece of cloth or leather.
- n. The act or an instance of wiping.
- n. Something, such as a towel or tissue, used for wiping.
- n. A cam that activates another part; a wiper.
- n. A blow or swipe.
- n. Informal A jeer; a gibe.
- n. A transition from one scene in a film or movie to another, effected by means of a line passing across the screen.
- wipe out To destroy or be destroyed completely.
- wipe out Slang To murder.
- wipe out Sports To lose one's balance and fall, as when skiing or surfing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To rub or stroke with or on something, especially a soft cloth, for cleaning; clean or dry by gently rubbing, as with a towel.
- To remove by or as by gently rubbing with or on something, especially a cloth; hence, with away, off, or out, to remove, efface, or obliterate.
- Figuratively, to cleanse, as from evil practices or abuses; clear, as of disadvantage or superfluity.
- To cheat; defraud; trick.
- To stroke or strike gently; tap.
- To beat; chastise.
- In plumbing, to apply (solder) without the use of a soldering-iron, by allowing the solder to cool into a semi-fluid condition, and then applying it by wiping it over the part to be soldered by the use of a pad of leather or cloth. See wiping, 2.
- To make strokes with a rubbing or sweeping motion.
- n. The act or process of wiping clean or dry; a sweeping stroke of one thing over another; a rub; a brush.
- n. A quick or hard stroke; a blow, literally or figuratively; a cut: now regarded as slang.
- n. The mark of a blow or wound; a scar; a brand.
- n. Something used in wiping; specifically, a handkerchief.
- n. plural A fence of brushwood.
- n. Same as wiper, 3.
- n. Same as weep.
Wiktionary
- v. To move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (cf. rub)
- v. To erase.
- n. A soft piece of cloth or cloth-like material used for wiping.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The lapwing.
- v. To rub with something soft for cleaning; to clean or dry by rubbing.
- v. To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; -- usually followed by
away ,off orout . Also used figuratively. - v. To cheat; to defraud; to trick; -- usually followed by
out . - n. Act of rubbing, esp. in order to clean.
- n. A blow; a stroke; a hit; a swipe.
- n. A gibe; a jeer; a severe sarcasm.
- n. A handkerchief.
- n. Stain; brand.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of rubbing or wiping
- v. rub with a circular motion
Etymologies
- Middle English wipen, from Old English wīpian; see weip- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Sometimes at our ceremonies, we go in for what we call a wipe down.”
“This ass wipe is just plain old chicken crap nasty.”
“Once again wipe down the pan and replace with the sweet potato chunks (do in 2 batches if necessary to not overcrowd the pan).”
“They must, in short, wipe the Bush Administration off the map; as if it never existed.”
“By holding the DVD by its outer rim, spray a bit of the liquid onto the underside of the disc — the part the laser reads — and gently wipe from the inside of the DVD to the outside and repeat this motion by going around the disc in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion.”
““that if the polls got worse month after month and end in wipe out in the local and European elections on June 4, Mr Brown could yet face a leadership challenge””
“We use the Sears catalogue to wipe, which is too bad.”
“Either this hand shall hurl to hell the Dardanian who skulks from Asia, and the Latins sit and see my single sword wipe out the nation's reproach; or let him rule his conquest, and Lavinia pass to his espousal. ”
“Now, a wipe is the easiest booty in the world, and the Artful Dodger might grow rich without the exercise of the smallest skill.”
“Testing conducted in June and December for Mateel, called wipe testing, aimed to mimic what happens when someone touches lead-tainted items.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wipe’.
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Film
jidaigeki, samurai, Kurosawa, action, comedy, drama, Bergman, Buñuel, surreal, rotoscope, melodrama, Cinerama and 333 more...
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Figuratively
Words with definitions containing "figuratively."
spore, plunge, fulminate, rasp, hinge, niche, breathe, approach, hammer, rain, butcher, dazzle and 128 more...
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Nigerian English
This list was inspired by this article. Any Nigerians out there care to add to it?
chop house, felicitate, jubilate, cutlass, waterloo, tout, urchin, gripe water, vulcanizer, miscreant, can of worms, sorry-o and 121 more...
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Pterodactyl's Game of Postal Abbreviations
Here's a fun little word game that might appeal to my fellow Wordies. The object of this game is to create the longest possible word, using only the official two-letter abbreviations of U.S. states...
deny, lame, mope, demand, camp, cask, hind, decamp, canvas, scalar, mental, pronks and 75 more...

bilby Nigerian English - slap across the face. Sep 17, 2008
sakhalinskii Something you should never forget to do. Jul 30, 2008