wipe

UK/waɪp/US/waɪp/

verbB15 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,715 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: wiped, wiping, wipes

To wipe is to clean something by dragging a cloth across it. A quick wipe of the kitchen counter, wiping your feet on the mat, wiping the steam off a mirror with your sleeve.

The small word after wipe does most of the work. You wipe up a spill, wipe down a table, wipe away tears, wipe off the mud before you come in. A wipe is also a thing you buy in a packet: baby wipes, antibacterial wipes, the ones that live in the glovebox. On a computer, to wipe a phone or a hard drive is to erase everything on it, and nothing comes back afterwards. Wiped out has two lives — a village wiped out by a flood is gone, while a person wiped out after a double shift is only very tired.

Definitions of wipe

1verbwipeTo clean or dry a surface by moving a cloth across it.B1
“Wipe the table before you set out the plates.”
- Said"Wipe the table, would you? There's jam on it from breakfast."
- WrittenHe wiped his hands on his apron and looked at the mess as if it were somebody else's.
- UsedWipe the rim of the plate before it leaves the kitchen.
- ContrastWipe, not wash. Washing needs water and time; a wipe is one pass of a cloth. wash →
- Not thisRinsing a cup under the tap is not wiping it. Wipe means a rag moving across a surface.
- Exchange"Did you wipe the counter?""Twice. That mark is old."
- SimplyWipe the window. Now it is clean.
Patternwipe sth with / on + noun · wipe sth up / off / down · wipe your hands / mouth · a wipe
2verbremoveTo remove something from a surface by wiping.B1
“She wiped the crumbs off her lap.”
3verberaseTo erase everything stored on a device.B2
“The phone was wiped before it was sold.”
4noundampA damp cloth or paper for cleaning, sold in a packet.B1
“There is a packet of wipes in the changing bag.”
5nounactAn act of cleaning something with a cloth.B1
“Give the shelf a wipe before you put anything on it.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

wipe is a way of cleaning.

Remember it

WIPE → the car's WIPErs across the glass

Watch the wipers on a car in the rain: across the glass, back again, and the water is gone. That is wiping.

Phrases it lives in

wipe the slate clean — to forget past mistakes and start again
wipe the floor with someone — to beat them completely

Where it comes from

Wipe is Old English wipian, to wipe, to rub, to cleanse, and behind that a Proto-Indo-European root weyp- meaning to twist or wind around. The same root turns up in swivel and swift. Watch your hand the next time you clean a window: the motion is a twist rather than a straight line, and the word has been recording that for thousands of years.

Proto-Indo-European
*weyp- — to twist, wind around
Proto-West Germanic
*wīpōn — to wipe
Old English
wīpian — to wipe, rub, cleanse
Middle English
wipen
English, today
wipe

From Middle English wipen, from Old English wīpian (“to wipe, rub, cleanse”), from Proto-West Germanic wīpōn (“to wipe”), from Proto-Indo-European weyp- (“to twist, wind around”). Cognate with German wippen (“to bob”), Swedish veva (“to turn, wind, crank”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍀𐌰𐌽 (“to wreathe, crown”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”), Sanskrit वेपते (“to tremble”). More at swivel, swift.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen, Everyday Verbs, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 5 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

wipe in the wild

Specifically, a "wipe out" is a fall from a surfboard, especially one that looks painful.
Wipe Out (instrumental)
The act was not effective elsewhere, as it was used only as a tool in an effort to wipe out Gaelic.
Education Act 1696
With their troops built up around the area, the PAVN/VC forces planned to cut all communication lines and wipe out the South Korean forces in the area.
Battle of Trà Bình
Climate change also increases both the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, which can directly wipe out regional populations of species.
Extinction risk from climate change

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the wīpian family

wipe

wipe — used about once every 196 pages · #1,715 · point at the bar for the others

wipe down

Definitions of wipe

1verbwipeTo clean or dry a surface by moving a cloth across it.B1

“Wipe the table before you set out the plates.”

Said"Wipe the table, would you? There's jam on it from breakfast."
WrittenHe wiped his hands on his apron and looked at the mess as if it were somebody else's.
UsedWipe the rim of the plate before it leaves the kitchen.
ContrastWipe, not wash. Washing needs water and time; a wipe is one pass of a cloth. wash →
Not thisRinsing a cup under the tap is not wiping it. Wipe means a rag moving across a surface.
Exchange"Did you wipe the counter?""Twice. That mark is old."
SimplyWipe the window. Now it is clean.

Patternwipe sth with / on + noun · wipe sth up / off / down · wipe your hands / mouth · a wipe

2verbremoveTo remove something from a surface by wiping.B1

“She wiped the crumbs off her lap.”

3verberaseTo erase everything stored on a device.B2

“The phone was wiped before it was sold.”

4noundampA damp cloth or paper for cleaning, sold in a packet.B1

“There is a packet of wipes in the changing bag.”

5nounactAn act of cleaning something with a cloth.B1

“Give the shelf a wipe before you put anything on it.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

wipe is a way of cleaning.