Other forms: swooping, swooped, swoops
To swoop is to drop suddenly through the air onto something. The owl swooped, swoop down, a swooping gull.
It is the movement of a bird taking prey — a fast descent ending in a catch — and gulls swooping for chips is a familiar British nuisance. Figuratively, police swoop on a place: a dawn swoop, which is standard newspaper language for a raid. Note in one fell swoop, meaning all at once, which is from Macbeth and where fell means cruel rather than fallen.
1verbswoopTo drop suddenly through the air onto something.
“The eagle swooped down and grabbed a fish from the lake.”
2nounmovementSuch a movement, or a sudden raid.
“Police arrested ten people in a dawn swoop on the gang's homes.”
swoop is a sudden descent.
It is related to sweep, both from a Germanic root about sweeping movement. The two words influenced each other's spelling, which is why swoop kept its double o.
Middle English
swopen — to sweep
English, today
swoop
From Middle English swopen (“to sweep”). a doublet of swaip. See also sweep, which was probably the basis for analogical restoration of in this word.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Birds