wipe

present singular third person wipes · participle present wiping · participle past wiped · past wiped

1. transitiveTo move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (Compare rub.)

   Tom started to wipe his eyes.

   3 more examples

   Melissa wiped her glasses with her shirt.

   I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand.

   So they passed through the Palace Gates and were led into a big room with a green carpet and lovely green furniture set with emeralds. 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

2. transitiveTo smear (a substance) with this kind of motion.

   You've wiped grease all over your shirt.

3. transitiveTo remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; usually followed by away, off, or out.

   So the plot is that he wipes half the population?

   2019 April 25, Amby Vaingankar, Ambycomics (comic)

   1 more example

   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 as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

4. ambitransitiveTo clean (the anus, buttocks and/or genitals) after defecation or urination.

   I had nothing to wipe my bum with.

   1 more example

   Even if you wipe very carefully, you still have to wash your hands afterward.

5. transitivecomputingTo erase.

   I accidentally wiped my hard drive.

6. transitivebusinessTo 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.
7. figurativelyTo remove an expression from one's face.

   You should wipe that smirk off your face before the boss comes in.

   1 more example

   Please wipe that look out of your eyes, it's bribing me to doubt myself.

   2008, Adele, First Love

8. transitiveTo deperm (a ship).
9. mediaTo 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

10. UKobsoleteslangTo hit or strike.
11. obsoleteTo cheat; to defraud; to trick; usually followed by out.

    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 Newe Yle Called Utopia: […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for] Abraham Vele, […], →OCLC

    1 more example

    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 […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC

plural wipes

1. The act of wiping something.

   multiple wipes of a computer's hard disk

2. 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

3. UKobsoleteslangA 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

   1 more example

   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

4. 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

5. obsoleteA 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

6. UKobsoleteslangA 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

plural wipes

1. A lapwing, especially a northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus).

present singular third person wipes · participle present wiping · participle past wiped · past wiped

1. intransitiveroleplaying gamesvideo gamesTo 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.

plural wipes

1. roleplaying gamesvideo gamesAn instance of all members of a party dying in a single campaign, event, or battle; a wipeout.

   Synonyms: TPK