swab

[swob] /swɒb/
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), swabbed, swabbing.
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
Related forms
unswabbed, adjective

Swab.

1.
Swabia.
2.
Swabian.
Examples from the web for swab
  • To check for parasites, surveyors can swab the abdomen of live butterflies to collect parasite spores.
  • The swab is fed into a device the size of a computer, which can reliably spot extremely small amounts of explosives.
  • Volunteers swab turtle mouths with gauze pads and also employ a secret weapon-mayonnaise.
  • As part of the campaign, she educates people about easy registration, which requires only a quick swab.
  • Fluid from the urethra is collected on a cotton swab.
  • Try to catch the discharge outside the nostril on a tissue or swab.
  • Roll the tissue or swab around, and pull the discharge out of the nose.
  • As they began to swab it for chemical residue, a series of raised dots emerged.
  • The health care provider may swab the area and send it for a culture.
  • Touching your legs in many places with a pin, cotton swab, or feather tests how well you feel.
British Dictionary definitions for swab

swab

/swɒb/
noun
1.
(med)
  1. a small piece of cotton, gauze, etc, for use in applying medication, cleansing a wound, or obtaining a specimen of a secretion, etc
  2. the specimen so obtained
2.
a mop for cleaning floors, decks, etc
3.
a brush used to clean a firearm's bore
4.
(slang) an uncouth or worthless fellow
verb swabs, swabbing, swabbed
5.
(transitive) to clean or medicate with or as if with a swab
6.
(transitive) foll by up. to take up with a swab
Word Origin
C16: probably from Middle Dutch swabbe mop; related to Norwegian svabba to splash, Dutch zwabberen to mop, German schwappen to slop over
Word Origin and History for swab
n.

1650s, "mop made of rope or yarn," from swabber (c.1600) "mop for cleaning a ship's deck," from Dutch zwabber, akin to West Frisian swabber "mop," from Proto-Germanic *swab-, perhaps of imitative origin. Non-nautical meaning "anything used for mopping up" is from 1787. Slang meaning "a sailor" first attested 1798, from swabber "member of a ship's crew assigned to swab decks" (1590s), which by 1609 was being used in a broader sense of "one who behaves like a low-ranking sailor."

v.

1719, possibly from swab (n.). Related: Swabbed; swabbing.

swab in Medicine

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.

Slang definitions & phrases for swab

swab

noun

A sailor, esp a Navy seaman: better fitting dress uniforms for the hard-to-fit doughboy or swabbie

[1798+; probably fr the characteristic activity of using swabs for cleaning the decks and other features of a ship]


swab in Technology


/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.
[Jargon File]