Library / English Dictionary

WIPE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of rubbing or wiping

Example:

he gave the hood a quick rub

Synonyms:

rub; wipe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("wipe" is a kind of...):

contact; physical contact (the act of touching physically)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wipe"):

scuff (the act of scuffing (scraping or dragging the feet))

Derivation:

wipe (rub with a circular motion)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rub with a circular motion

Example:

He passed his hands over the soft cloth

Synonyms:

pass over; wipe

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "wipe" is one way to...):

rub (move over something with pressure)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wipe"):

sponge (wipe with a sponge, so as to clean or moisten)

squeegee (wipe with a squeegee)

broom; sweep (sweep with a broom or as if with a broom)

towel (wipe with a towel)

whisk; whisk off (brush or wipe off lightly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Also:

wipe away; wipe off (remove by wiping)

wipe off (remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing)

wipe out (use up (resources or materials))

Derivation:

wipe (the act of rubbing or wiping)

wiper (a mechanical device that cleans the windshield)

wiper (contact consisting of a conducting arm that rotates over a series of fixed contacts and comes to rest on an outlet)

wiper (a worker who wipes)

Credits

 Context examples: 

But I must say this, for the good creetur, he resumed, wiping his face, when we were quite exhausted; she has been all she said she'd be to us, and more.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This all sounds dreary, but you’ll feel good after you have wiped your slate clean.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers also work well.

(Germs and Hygiene, NIH)

If humanity had been wiped out, the gods would have starved.

(‘Trickster god’ used fake news in Babylonian Noah story, University of Cambridge)

“Why, what a precious old sea-calf I am!” he said at last, wiping his cheeks.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Hans brushed his coat, wiped his face and hands, rested a while, and then drove off his cow quietly, and thought his bargain a very lucky one.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The researchers gave the mice an antibiotic cocktail designed to wipe out a broad spectrum of bacteria in the gut and by rearing them in a germ-free environment.

(In uveitis, bacteria in gut may instruct immune cells to attack the eye, NIH)

Neither is there any remedy; because it is capital for those, who receive an audience to spit or wipe their mouths in his majesty’s presence.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Citing statistics from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the earth is on course to see 20 to 40 per cent of all biodiversity wiped out by the end of the 21st century.

(Nearly Half the Planet's Species Could Be Wiped Out by the End of This Century, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said: Then you're thinkin' as it was—A long wailing cry, fiercely sad, from somewhere in the darkness, had interrupted him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)