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swab - 11 dictionary results
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swab

  [swob] noun, verb, swabbed, swab⋅bing.
Use swab in a Sentence
–noun
1. a large mop used on shipboard for cleaning decks, living quarters, etc.
2. a bit of sponge, cloth, cotton, or the like, sometimes fixed to a stick, for cleansing the mouth of a sick person or for applying medicaments, drying areas, etc.
3. the material collected with a swab as a specimen for microscopic study.
4. a brush or wad of absorbent material for cleaning the bore of a firearm.
5. Slang. a sailor; swabby.
6. Slang. a clumsy fellow.
–verb (used with object)
7. to clean with or as if with a swab: to swab the decks.
8. to take up or apply, as moisture, with or as if with a swab: to swab soapy water from the decks.
9. to pass over a surface: to swab a mop over the decks.
Also, swob.

Origin:
1645–55; back formation from swabber
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Swab.

 
1. Swabia.
2. Swabian.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To swab
swab also swob   (swŏb)   
n.  
    1. A small piece of absorbent material attached to the end of a stick or wire and used for cleansing or applying medicine.
    2. A specimen of mucus or other material removed with a swab.
  2. A sponge or patch of absorbent material used to clean the bore of a firearm or cannon.
  3. A mop used for cleaning floors or decks.
  4. Slang A sailor.
  5. Slang A lout.
tr.v.   swabbed also swobbed, swab·bing also swob·bing, swabs also swobs
  1. To use a swab on.
  2. To clean with a swab.
  3. To take a specimen from (a person) using a swab.

[Back-formation from swabber, mop for a ship's deck (from obsolete Dutch *zwabber, from zwabben, to mop) or from obsolete Dutch swabbe, mop (from Middle Dutch).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Swab

Swab\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swabbed; p. pr. & vb. n. Swabbing.] [See Swabber, n.] To clean with a mop or swab; to wipe when very wet, as after washing; as, to swab the desk of a ship. [Spelt also swob.]

Swab

Swab\, n. [Written also swob.]

1. A kind of mop for cleaning floors, the desks of vessels, etc., esp. one made of rope-yarns or threads.

2. A bit of sponge, cloth, or the like, fastened to a handle, for cleansing the mouth of a sick person, applying medicaments to deep-seated parts, etc.

3. (Naut.) An epaulet. [Sailor's Slang] --Marryat.

4. A cod, or pod, as of beans or pease. [Obs.] --Bailey.

5. A sponge, or other suitable substance, attached to a long rod or handle, for cleaning the bore of a firearm.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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swab

/swob/ [From the mnemonic for the PDP-11 `SWAp Byte' instruction, as immortalized in the `dd(1)' option `conv=swab' (see dd)]
1. vt. To solve the NUXI problem by swapping bytes in a file.
2. n. The program in V7 Unix used to perform this action, or anything functionally equivalent to it. See also big-endian, little-endian, middle-endian, bytesexual.
Jargon File 4.2.0
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swab 
1659, "mop made of rope or yarn," from swabber (1607) "mop for cleaning a ship's deck," from Du. zwabber, akin to W.Fris. swabber "mop," from P.Gmc. *swab-, perhaps of imitative origin. Non-nautical meaning "anything used for mopping up" is from 1787. The verb is first recorded 1719, possibly from the noun. Slang meaning "a sailor" first attested 1798, from swabber "member of a ship's crew assigned to swab decks" (1591), which by 1609 was being used in a broader sense of "one who behaves like a low-ranking sailor."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: 1swab
Pronunciation: 'swäb
Function: noun
1 : a wad of absorbent material usually wound around one end of a small stickand used for applying medication or for removing material from an area
2 : a specimen taken with a swab swab>

Main Entry: 2swab
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: swabbed; swab·bing
: to apply medication to with a swab<swabbed the wound with iodine>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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swab (swŏb)
n.

  1. A small piece of absorbent material attached to the end of a stick or wire and used for cleansing or applying medicine.
  2. A specimen of mucus or other material removed with a swab.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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swab
/swob/ The PDP-11 swap byte instruction mnemonic, as immortalised in the dd option "conv=swab".
1. To solve the NUXI problem by swapping bytes in a file.
2. The program in V7 Unix used to perform this action, or anything functionally equivalent to it.
See also big-endian, little-endian, middle-endian, bytesexual.
[The Jargon File]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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