swipe
pronunciation
How to pronounce swipe in British English:
UK [swaɪp]
How to pronounce swipe in American English:
US [swaɪp]
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- Noun:
- a sweeping stroke or blow
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- Verb:
- strike with a swiping motion
- make off with belongings of others
Word Origin
- swipe
- swipe: see sweep
- swipe (v.)
- 1825, "strike with a sweeping motion," from swipe (n.). The slang sense of "steal, pilfer" appeared 1885, American English; earliest use in prison jargon: The blokes in the next cell, little Charley Ames and the Sheeney Kid, they was hot to try it, and swiped enough shoe-lining out of shop No. 5, where they worked, to make us all breeches to the stripes. ["Lippincott's Magazine," vol. 35, June 1885] Meaning "run a credit card" is 1990s. Related: Swiped; swiper; swiping.
- swipe (n.)
- 1807, "a driving stroke made with the arms in full swing," perhaps a dialectal variant of sweep (n.), or in part from obsolete swip "a stroke, blow" (c. 1200), from Proto-Germanic *swip-, related to Old English swipu "a stick, whip; chastisement." Other possible sources or influences are Middle English swope "to sweep with broad movements" (in reference to brooms, swords, etc.), from Old English swapan; obsolete swaip "stroke, blow;" or obsolete swape "oar, pole."
Example
- 1. Now you just swipe up from the camera icon .
- 2. To get served , youths need to swipe their phone over a chip-reader and have their fingerprints scanned .
- 3. The payments world is changing fast but the card firms are not about to let rivals swipe their business .
- 4. Customers swipe their savings card on the phone and hand their deposit to the agent who pockets the money .
- 5. As telford puts it " you can 't just take a credit card and swipe it and be on our cloud . "