| 释义 |
▪ I. wipe, n.|waɪp|
Also 6–7 wype.
[f. wipe v.]
1. a. An act of wiping (in senses 1–3 of wipe v.).
In first quot. in fig. phr.: see wipe v. 10 a.
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. vii. 388 That which hath sharpned the pens of many against him, is his giving so many cleanly wipes to the foul noses of the Pope and Italian Prelacy. 1849Cupples Green Hand x, Here the worthy man took off his large spectacles, gave them a wipe, and put them on again. 1859Househ. Encycl. II. 401/2 If the spit is carefully wiped after roasting,..it will require nothing more than a wipe before using. 1885J. B. Gough Platform Echoes 69 He had been in the mine, and had evidently given himself a splash and a wipe. 1888J. W. Clarke Mod. Plumbing Pract. (1914) I. 168 Some men can take longer ‘wipes’ than others, but the wipes should always be done as quickly as possible.
b. With advs., in various lit. and fig. senses.
1822[? Egan] Real Life Lond. I. 322 A brush to give the gemman a wipe down. 1884D. Kemp Yacht & Boat Sailing (ed. 4) 165 Do not wait until her bowsprit is over your quarter before you luff, but take a wipe out across her when she is fifty yards off or so. 1894H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Rom. 138 Those more particular gave them [sc. the tin platters] a rough wipe-out with a piece of paper. 1912D. Crawford Thinking Black xviii. 371 This vile fly means sleeping sickness, and sleeping sickness means a wipe-out.
c. Cinemat. and Television. An effect in which an existing picture seems to be wiped out by a new one as the boundary between them moves across the screen (the pictures themselves remaining stationary). orig. wipe-dissolve.
1933Cinema Q. II. i. 43, I..deplored the constant use of wipe-dissolves to cover the weak continuity. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iv. 263 There is no real equivalent in music even of the ‘wipe-dissolve’ which leads the eye gently but quickly from one scene to another. 1936A. Brunel Film Production 43 It may be argued that wipes are not easily achieved. 1960Guardian 8 June 7/3 A special effects generator..enables 20,000 different shades of ‘wipe’ to be deployed... It makes a fascinating variety of shapes and devices upon the screen. 1979Broadcast 1 Oct. 54/2 Within the SqueeZoomed sequence of archive TV shots..Tony Rayner inserted two wipes to blue..which allow live ‘headline’ shots from that day's programme to be chromakeyed in.
2. a. A slashing blow, a sweeping cut, a swipe; also fig. (in early use esp. in phraseological expressions, e.g. a wipe over the shins; also, a ‘blow of Fortune’, a stroke of misfortune; a wipe in the eye: a disappointment or rebuff; = smack in the eye s.v. smack n.2 3 a; cf. wipe v. 10 d).
1550Bale Image Both Ch. ii. 66 b, He [sc. the Beast] had a greuouse wype with the sworde (which is the lyuynge worde of the lorde) whan he lost his monks [etc.]. 1568T. Howell Newe Sonets (1879) 117 When cruell fate them cleane cut of, at one most soden wipe. 1574Hellowes Gueuara's Fam. Ep. (1577) 235 The beginners of quarels do sometime catch a wipe. 1589Marprel. Epit. B, He hath giuen the cause sicken a wipe in his bricke,..that the cause will be the warmer..for it. 1590Pasquil's Apol. i. C ij, The second venue the Welch-man hath bestowed vpon vs, is a wipe ouer the shinnes of the Non Residents. 1635Brome Sparagus Garden iv. x, So much for single Rapier: now for your secret wipe at Back-sword. 1644Bp. Hall Serm., Eph. iv. 30 Rem. Wks. (1660) 107 The least wipe of the eye troubles us more then a hard stroak upon the back. 1785Grose Dict. Vulgar T. s.v., That story gave him a fine wipe. 1788Thicknesse Sk. Life Gainsborough 43 When a certain Duchess sent to know the reason why her picture was not sent home? he gave it a wipe in the face with his back-ground-brush. 1808Sir J. Moore in Jas. C. Moore Narr. Campaign (1809) 297 It will be very agreeable to give a wipe to such a corps. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 39/1 The cove used to fetch me a wipe over the knuckles with his stick. 1891Kipling Light that Failed vi. 100 There's the scar of the wipe he got when he was cut over. 1926T. E. Lawrence Let. 6 Apr. (1938) 495 Your statement that the hospital passage would be a wipe in the eye for 19 readers out of 20 puts it out of court. 1949D. M. Davin Roads from Home iii. iii. 236 It was a wipe in the eye for John the way he was getting out.
†b. transf. A mark as of a blow or lash; a scar or brand. poet. Obs.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 537 The blemish..Worse then a slauish wipe or birth howrs blot.
†c. colloq. An act of drinking: cf. swipe n.2 3.
1600Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood Sat. vi. E 6 b, We gaue the Brewers Diet-drinke a wipe.
3. fig. A cutting remark; a sarcastic reproof or rebuff; a jeer, jibe.
In quot. 1596 in colourless sense, = ‘remark’.
1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 39 This as a wype be the way [orig. ut hoc obiter dicam]. Ibid. 263. 1606 Proc. agst. Late Traitors 286 For his labour [he] receives a wipe at the hands of Bellarmine. 1653A. Wilson James I, 96 The Lord Treasurer gave him a wipe, for suffering his Coachman to ride bare before him in the streets. 1659Burton's Diary (1828) IV. 333 It was an ill wipe to Mr. Grove who brought in the Declaration. 1705Vanbrugh Confederacy v. ii, So, that's a wipe for me now, because I did not give her a New-Years-Gift last time. 1733Swift On Poetry 95 To statesmen would you give a wipe, You print it in Italic type. 1822Galt Provost xxxi, I did not much like this bantering of Mr. M‘Queerie..I said, ‘Come, come, neighbour, none of your wipes.’ 1897Westm. Gaz. 25 Oct. 2/2, The extraordinary ‘wipe’ (there is no other word for it) which the staid old Quarterly administers..to the Poet Laureate.
4. a. slang. A handkerchief. (Superseding the earlier wiper 2.) Also in comb.
1708Memoirs of John Hall 23 Wipe, a Handkerchief. 1789G. Parker Life's Painter (ed. 2) 136, I only napt a couple of birds eye wipes. 1800Sporting Mag. XVI. 26 Three boys brought in for prigging of wipes. 1800in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. IV. 254 The wipe-nabbers made a tolerable gleaning. 1838Dickens O. Twist viii, ‘Is Fagin upstairs?’ ‘Yes, he's a sortin' the wipes.’ 1859Sala Tw. round Clock 125 The ‘case of wipes’, as an irreverent bystander called the procès of the pickpocket.
b. A disposable piece of soft absorbent cloth or tissue, sometimes impregnated with a cleansing agent, for wiping clean one's hands or anything small.
1971Textile Industries Dec. 50/1 Towels, Covers, Pads, and Wipes. 1974Hawkey & Bingham Wild Card ix. 87 Half-empty boxes of medical wipes lying on the ultra⁓centrifuge. 1978‘M. Yorke’ Point of Murder ii. 19 Kate's hands had got oily..but she kept some tissue wipes in the car. 1980Chem. in Brit. XVI. 449/4 For situations where protective gloves are inconvenient, Chicopee has brought out Dermawipe impregnated hand wipes.
5. = wiper 5. Also attrib.
[1873Maxwell Electr. & Magn. II. 375 A piece of mechanism (commonly called a Commutator, or wippe).] 1884W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron xvi. 308 The cam..is a revolving wheel with twelve or fourteen projecting teeth or wipes. 1905Motor Year-bk. 221 The wipe commutator is placed inside the bonnet projecting upwards.
▪ II. wipe, v.|waɪp|
Pa. tense and pple. wiped |waɪpt|. Forms: 1 wipian, 3–6 wype, (4 whype, 5 whipe, wyp, 6 wip), 2– wipe. β. 4–5 wepe, 5 weype, 7 weipe, weepe. pa. tense 1 wipode, 3–4 wipede, wypede, 4–7 wyped (etc.), 3– wiped. β. 4 wipped, wyppit, 4–5 wipte, 5–6 wypt, 5–7 wipt. γ. 4 weped, 5 weput. pa. pple. 2–4 i-wipet, 3–4 i-wyped; 5–7 wyped (5 weyped), 6– wiped. β. 4 wipped, wypped, 5–6 wypt, 6–7 wipt(e, wip't.
[OE. wípian = OHG. wîfan (MHG. wîfen) to wind round, Goth. weipan to crown; further related to OHG. waif bandage, ON. veipr head-covering, Goth. waips wreath, and the forms enumerated s.v. whip: f. the base wib-, as in L. vibrāre to brandish, shake.]
1. a. trans. To rub (something) gently with a soft cloth or the like, or on something, so as to clear its surface of dust, dirt, moisture, etc.; to clean or dry in this way. Also with compl.
c960æthelwold Rule St. Benet (Schröer 1885) xxxv. 59 Wæterclaðas..þe hy heora handa and fet mid wipedan. c1000ælfric Hom. I. 426 Ic ᵹeseo Godes engel standende ætforan ðe mid hand-claðe, and wipaþ ðine swatiᵹan limu. c1200Vices & Virtues 125 Wassce and wipe wol clane ða eiȝene. c1205Lay. 22289 Heo wipeden hors leoue mid linnene claðe. a1300Cursor M. 15300 And wit his tueil efterward Þair fete he weped clene. Ibid. 17683 Quen he wipped had mi face. c1300K. Horn 622 (Laud MS.) Horn gan hys swerd gripe And on his arm hyt wipe. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 195 I-wipet with a wesp of Firsen. 1375Barbour Bruce v. 647 Quhen the king saw thai war ded,..he wyppit his brand. c1400Mandeville xxvii. [xxiii.] (1919) 165 Whan þei han eten, þei wypen hire hondes vpon hire skirtes. 1486Bk. St. Albans C viij, She bekyth when she sewith: that is to say she wypith hir beke. c1500Young Children's Bk. 105 in Babees Bk. 23 Wype thi mouthe when þou wyll drinke. 1508Stanbridge Vulgaria (W. de W.) B iij, Wype thy nose. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xxix. (Percy Soc.) 136 Whan she lacketh cloutes, without any fayle She wyped her disshes wyth her dogges tayle. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 122 We haue..sat at good mens feasts, and wip'd our eies Of drops, that sacred pity hath engendred. 1610Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 191 To a boie that wyped bootes, iijd. 1781Cowper Expost. 385 Though a bishop toil to cleanse the stain, He wipes and scours the silver cup in vain. 1806J. Carr Stranger in Ireland 269 A large Newfoundland dog..walks round the table for the guests to wipe their fingers upon. 1831Scott Cast. Dang. xiii, Wiping his lips, after having finished his draught. 1848Dickens Dombey liii, Stopping on the mat to wipe his shoes all round. 1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxii, The Major had swum out and was standing on the rock wiping himself.
absol.1614Earl Stirling Domesday ii. xcix, Thus waters wash, winds wipe, and both conspire, That th' earth (so purg'd) may be prepar'd for fire.
†b. To rub, stroke. Obs.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 212 Þenne he wakede of his wynk and wypede his eiȝen. a1375Joseph Arim. 30 Thenne he toke me by the hande frome the grounde and wyped my face with a rose and kyssed me. c1450Mirk's Festial 265 Then toke Iude þe lettyr þat Cryst send to þe kyng befor, and weput þe kyngys forhede þerwyth.
c. absol. = dry v. 1 c. Also with up. Cf. wash v. 1 i.
1943,1962[see wash v. 1 i]. 1968R. V. Beste Repeat the Instructions ii. 19 He wiped while Huskion..scrubbed away in the sink. 1974M. Birmingham You can help Me vii. 169, I was helping Mrs Hope wipe up in the kitchen. 1981A. Wilson in T. Thompson Edwardian Childhoods iii. 78 One'd wipe and one'd wash—we didn't make hard work of it.
d. (a) To demagnetize (a ship) by passing a horizontal current-carrying cable up and down the hull. (b) To remove a recording from (magnetic tape).
1946‘L. Luard’ Changing Horizons 145 ‘No complaints, except she's steel.’ ‘And not wiped or degaussed,’ the Skipper commented. 1947Crowther & Whiddington Science at War 171 He arranged that ships should be ‘wiped’ with temporary horizontal coils. 1962R. W. Clark Rise of Boffins iv. 95 Demagnetizing the ships..by ‘wiping’ the sides..with a horizontal cable carrying a strong current. 1962E. Salter Voice of Peacock xx. 203 In the case of auditions, the tape was sometimes wiped so's it could be used again. 1965D. Francis Odds Against x. 137, I wiped the tape clean. 1980Listener 8 May 594/2, I presume the BBC wiped, as they say, the original tape.
2. a. To remove or clear away (moisture, dust, etc.) from something by the action described in 1. Often with away, off, up.
Also formerly in extended sense, e.g. of a cleansing substance.
c1000Sax. Leechd. III. 4 Leᵹe on huniᵹ ðreo niht, nim þonne & wipa þæt huniᵹ of. a1240Sawles Warde in O.E. Hom. I. 261 Þat haueð alle teares iwipet of hare ehnen. a1300K. Horn 1203 (Camb.) He wipede þat blake of his swere. c1400Destr. Troy 3380 Whipe vp þi teris. c1450Mirk's Festial 188 He had a cloth.., forto wepen away þe terys. 1535Coverdale Isa. xxv. 8 The Lorde God shal wipe awaye the teares from all faces. 1583Hollyband Campo di Fior 375 Hauing first wipt of the dust well. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. i. 38 The Goddesse..With her soft garment wipes away the gore. 1646Crashaw Sospetto d'Herode xlix, With her soft wing wipt from the browes of men Day's sweat. 1762Sterne Tr. Shandy VI. ii, They should have wiped it up, said my uncle Toby, and said no more about it. 1838Dickens O. Twist xxxviii, Now he took courage to wipe off the perspiration which had been trickling over his nose. 1882Besant All Sorts xx, She groaned and wiped away a tear.
†b. (with away, out) To obliterate, efface, erase. Obs. as a specific sense.
1535Coverdale Ps. lxviii[i]. 28 Let them be wyped out of y⊇ boke of the liuynge. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 232 b, Augustus had writen a tragedie entitleed Aiax, and y⊇ same tragedie..(because it myslyked hym) he wyped out with a spounge. 1587Golding De Mornay xiii. 217 If ye meane fortune as she is peynted by the Poets,..it is as easie to wype her away as to paynt her. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 112 They are allowed a Board plastered over, which with Cotton they wipe out, when full, as we do from Slates. 1826Landor Imag. Conv., Emp. Alex. & Capo D'Istria I. 447 Your Majesty has wiped away with the soft part of the pen, what the British Minister thought he had written so deeply.
†c. transf. and gen. To remove, clear away or off (something deleterious or offensive). Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiii. i. (1495) L ij b/1 Water..wypeth of fylthe and wasshyth awaye synnes. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. v. 30 Whiles creeping slomber made him to forget His former paine, and wypt away his toylsom sweat. 1600Surflet Country Farm ii. xxxiv. 243 That turneps.. wipe away the spots of the face. 1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. xi. xi, Till coldest aire..And heav'ns cleare forehead now wipes off her former lowres. 1641Milton Animadv. Wks. 1851 III. 246 Wipe your fat corpulencies out of our light. a1660Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) III. 39 To weepe off this manchinge staine.
d. To erase (a magnetic recording, or data stored on a magnetic medium). Freq. with off, out.
1900Engin. Mag. XIX. 758/1 When it is desired to wipe out a record, the electromagnet..is attached to a constant battery and run over the wire, thus magnetising it uniformly once more and preparing it to receive a new message. 1934Wireless World 5 Jan. 8/3 When a record is no longer required, the programme recorded on the strip can be ‘wiped out’. 1976Broadcast 23 Aug. 10/3 He was staggered at the quantity of programmes in which James MacTaggart had been involved. Most of it has been wiped. 1981Times 4 July 10/3 This is a three-hour reusable tape with an hour's quite sophisticated cabaret already recorded, which you can keep or wipe off. 1984Computerworld 26 Mar. 14/2 If one formats an IBM Personal Computer XT and does not indicate which drive to format, the machine formats the hard disk and wipes out all data on it.
e. (Without prep.) To dismiss, reject, repudiate (esp. a person). Austral. and N.Z. slang.
1941K. Tennant Battlers 196 Giving her money..in the casual manner that wiped her from all consideration as a human being. 1946Coast to Coast 1945 123 Listen pal—your girl wiped you, didn't she? 1948Landfall June 111 Hands in pockets, shoulders hunched, he strode bitterly up the street from the pub. He'd wipe them, have nothing to do with the morons. 1954T. A. G. Hungerford Sowers of Wind 162 She dumped me, wiped me like a dirty nose. 1967F. Sargeson Hangover xiv. 124 If it came to that one of his reasons for wiping university was a senior lecturer who had failed to avoid the same gross error. 1975R. Beilby Brown Land Crying 295 You can wipe that idea, if that's what you're thinking.
3. To apply or spread a soft or liquid substance over the surface of a body by rubbing it on with a cloth, pad, or the like (with the substance or the body as obj.); spec. in Plumbing, to apply solder by this method so as to unite and finish off a joint.
1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 98 With this liquid wipe over your gilding. 1837Whittock, etc. Bk. Trades (1842) 287 (Gun-maker) Nitrous acid, which contains gas, and is slightly wiped on in stripes. 1888J. W. Clarke Mod. Plumbing Pract. (1914) I. 100 If the cloths are of a good thickness the joints can be wiped much truer.
4. fig. (from 1.) To clear, cleanse (from or of something); in the biblical passage, to empty completely, lay waste.
c1400Pety Job 211 in 26 Pol. Poems 127 Thus with wepyng haue I wypt My soule..from dedly synne. 1535Coverdale 2 Kings xxi. 13, I..wyll wype out Ierusalem, euen as one wypeth a platter [1560 (Geneva), I wil wipe Ierusalem, as a man wipeth a dish]. 1899F. T. Bullen Way Navy 94 The happy..faculty of wiping their minds clear of harassing thought.
†5. To deprive, rob, cheat, defraud, do out of some possession or advantage. Const. beside (beside B. 4 c), of; rarely for (for prep. 23 d), from.
1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. James i. 1–12 He shall..bee wyped besydes al his goodes. 1577–82Breton Floorish upon Fancie Wks. (Grosart) I. 30/1 My Ladies Maides will wipe the Page, Alwayes of such an heritage. 1594[? Greene] Selimus E 2, To wipe me cleane for euer being king. Ibid. F 2 b, Hath he not wip't me from the Turkish crowne? 1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 612/1 The English, which they thinke lye still in wayte to wipe them out of theyr landes. 1622Fletcher Span. Cur. iv. v, You fool us of our moneys.., in every Quiddit wipe us. 1678Donna Olimpia 84 Seeing her self clearly wiped of that Interest. 1746Francis tr. Hor., Sat. i. x. 56 The wily Harlot, and the Slave, who join To wipe the Miser of his darling Coin.
6. (from 2.) To clear away, remove: most commonly with adv. (away, off, out).
a. To take away, put away (something figured as a stain or defilement); to remove the guilt, blame, or dishonour of; to clear a person, or oneself, of (a charge or imputation).
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VIII. 131 Whanne þe mescheef of his takynge was i-wyped of. c1410Hoccleve Mother of God 31 O blessid lady,..Þat by prayere wypest cleene away The filthes of our synful wikkidnesse. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 42 The good lyfe..wypeth awaye the synnes. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. iv. 117 This blot that they obiect against your House, Shall be wiped [Fol. whipt] out in the next Parliament. 1606G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Justine xxxvi. 114 To the entent to wipe that spot of cowardice wherewith hee had blemished his reputation. 1649Milton Eikon. xv. 140 To wipe off jealousies and scandals, the best way had bin by clear Actions. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 61 By his fidelity to wipe out all that was past. 1841Elphinstone Hist. India II. 149 One of those chiefs, indignant at the imputation, determined..to wipe it off at any risk. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. v. 431 There died Godwine,..wiping out, by a valiant death, the errors of an earlier stage of his life.
†b. To take away completely, as by theft or fraud; to make off with. (Cf. 5.) Obs.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. 286/296 Al þat ich habbe i-wonne a-day.., I-wyped it is al clene a-wey ase it neuere nere. 1540Palsgr. Acolastus iv. iii. S iv b, That he maye wype awaye all the money of this man. 1556Olde Antichrist 74 They deceatfully & fraudulently wyped their money from them. 1599Sir J. Hayward 1st Pt. Hen. IV 55 Hee wiped away from the people such heapes of money as [etc.]. 1648Gage West Ind. 151 The Priest..wipes away to his chamber all that which the poor..Indians had offered.
c. To destroy the trace of, obliterate, efface; to destroy the effect or value of, bring to nought.
1564Brief Exam. *iij b, I must nedes wype a great many out of their brotherhood. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. i. 211, I knew of this before. But..This present greefe had wip'd it from my minde. 1611― Wint. T. iv. ii. 11 As thou lou'st me (Camillo) wipe not out the rest of thy seruices, by leauing me now. 1704C. Leslie Wolf Stript 50 But all they have done before, is wip'd clean off! 1875Whitney Life Lang. vii. 125 Every period of linguistic life..wipes out a part of the intermediates which connect a derived element with its original. 1898‘H. S. Merriman’ Roden's Corner v. 47 The anxiety wiped away from his face as if by magic. 1901Scotsman 1 Mar. 7/4 Last week the questions reached a total which had never before been known. This afternoon that record was wiped out, and another established.
d. To do away with, put an end to, abolish, annihilate. Now always with out.
1538Starkey England (1878) 194 The tyrannycal..instytutyonys..left here among vs, whych al schold be wypt away by the receyuyng of thys wych we cal the veray cyuyle law. 1567Jewel Def. Apol. 468 If yee had not vtterly wypte al shame from your faces. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Dec. 108 My haruest wast, my hope away dyd wipe.
1841Browning Pippa Passes ii. 212 And wipe with the first lunge My foe's whole life out, like a sponge. a1842Arnold in Stanley Life (1845) I. iv. 237 So completely wiping a man out of existence. 1903Athenæum 17 Jan. 71/3 The competition of railways, which has wiped out the steamers of the Mississippi.
e. spec. To put all to death, destroy completely, exterminate (a body of persons); usually with out. Also (slang), to kill (a person); also with out.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades 105/2 The Chananites were wiped away bycause of their incest.
1861Jrnl. Discourses (1862) IX. 112 Many of the officers went away saying, ‘We will come by-and-by and wipe you out.’ 1865Swinburne Poems & Ball., Hymn to Proserpine 14 O Gods dethroned and deceased, cast forth, wiped out in a day. 1889Kipling Wee Willie Winkie, Drums of Fore & Aft 103 But for want of fresh troops, the Afghans would have been wiped off the earth. 1898Century Mag. Apr. 925/2 A tragedy which wiped out an entire crew. 1968J. Philips Hot Summer Killing iii. i. 129 Is he the one who was wiped earlier tonight in the Molyneaux Hotel? 1969C. Burke God is Beautiful, Man (1970) 47 They decided to find a way to get rid of him, to wipe him out. 1977Time 12 Sept. 40/2 You could be wiped out if you moved a single inch. 1980J. McClure Blood of Englishman ii. 18 Someone tried to wipe Bradshaw... The shot caught him here in the collar-bone.
f. (with off, rarely † out) To cancel (an account or score); to discharge, pay off (a debt).
1667Dryden & Dk. Newc. Sir. M. Mar-all ii. ii, All this is since the last reckoning was wip'd out. 1668Dryden Even. Love iii. i, For this time I wipe off your score, till you are caught tripping in some new amour. 1748Richardson Clarissa II. xxi. 133 Lovelace..like an absolved confessionaire, wipes off, as he goes along, one score, to begin another. 1831James Phil. Augustus xliii, Many an old score of rebellion not yet wiped off between himself and the king. 1886W. J. Tucker E. Europe 187 A sum which has to go to wipe off a few of your most pressing mortgages.
†g. (with off) To get quit or clear of (an unpleasant task). Obs. rare.
1655in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 13, I am glad..that you have wipt off that dirty & wett journey so fairely without prejudice to yor health.
h. to wipe (an expression, esp. a smile) off a person's or one's face: (to cause him) to cease showing it. slang.
[1567: cf. sense 6 d above.] 1895Conrad Almayer's Folly xii. 256 A face from which all feelings and all expression are suddenly wiped off by the hand of unexpected death. [1898: cf. sense 6 c above.] 1935Time 24 June 28/1 Wipe dat smile offen his face! 1936D. Carnegie How to win Friends & influence People ii. ii. 99 Bill, you are going to wipe the scowl off that sour puss of yours today. 1972D. S. Viscott Making of Psychiatrist ii. 37 Terry O'Conner seemed to think it was funny but wiped the smile off her face every time her eye caught Larry's. 1977Observer 14 Aug. 3/7 Only one sentence would have wiped the smile off Mason's face. 1978G. Greene Human Factor vi. i. 305 She realised she was smiling at the telephone—thank God, they hadn't yet invented a visual telephone, but all the same she wiped the smile off her face.
i. pass. or intr. Surfing. To be knocked from one's surfboard. With out. slang.
1962T. Masters Surfing made Easy 66 Wiped out, getting knocked off of a surfboard, usually by a wave. 1965[see locked ppl. a. g]. 1966Weekly News (N.Z.) 19 Jan. 6/3 When ‘wiping-out’ a surfer should try to hold his board. 1968Surfer Mag. Jan. 48/2 Frye misjudged one of his turns high in the curl and wiped-out in the white water.
7. a. To strike, beat, or attack (with blows, or with mockery, sarcasm, rebuke, or the like). Now dial. or slang.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. lxxxvi. h ij b/1 They wolde come to the walles, and wype them in derysion, sayeng [etc.]. c1550Thersytes (facs.) D j b, Thom tombler of tewxbury turninge at a tryce Wyll wype wylliam waterman if he be not wyse. 1589R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 22 You see my quarter staffe... A washing blow of this..can wipe a fellow ouer the thumbs. 1620I. C. Two Merry Milk-maids iv. i, Cal. Something crost my Nose. Ran. A Dore, a Dore, the fields are full of them... There was another wip't me in the same place. a1625Fletcher Woman's Prize i. i, Tra. You have wip'd him now. Soph. So will he never the wench, I hope. 1643Milton Divorce ii. x. Wks. 1851 IV. 88 That such a hainous fault..should be onely wipt with an implicit and oblique touch. 1663Lamont Diary (Maitl. Club) 164 [He] found them out in bed togither, wher he abused his brother for such a lewd prancke, and did weipe hir with his rodde. 1846Bentley's Misc. Oct. 366 If you don't shell out on the minute I'll wipe your throat with my bowy-knife. 1882Jamieson's Sc. Dict., Wipe, to strike, to whip. Clydes.
†b. (with away, off) To strike off, cut off at a blow. Obs. rare.
1596Spenser F.Q. v. xi. 27 Her Lions clawes he from her feete away did wipe. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 130 Nor that a Nonconformists head must be wip'd off as oft as your nose drivles.
8. intr. for pass. (lit. or fig.: see 2, 6).
a1300Cursor M. 8952 If þat ani vertu be Of halines wit-in þat tre, Wit sinful mens fett..On ganging it sal wipe a-wai. 1426Audelay Poems 21 Al the worchyp of this word hit wyl wype sone away, Hit fallus and fadys forth. 1827Pollok Course T. viii. 138 He had on his hands The blood of souls, that would not wipe away. Mod. colloq. The spots will easily wipe off.
9. Cinemat. and Television. To pass from or from one scene to another by means of a wipe; to employ a wipe.
1951Halas & Privett How to cartoon for Amateur Films 118 We now wish to wipe from one scene to another. 1952Cinema 7 Jan. 97/1 [The Director] can cut, fade, wipe or mix at will.
10. Phrases (with various nouns as obj.).
a. to wipe a person's nose: † (a) see nose n. 10, 10 b (cf. sense 5 above); occas., to treat with contempt or indignity; (b) in mod. use = d (a).
†b. to wipe the mouth of: to exonerate, prove or assert the innocence of: cf. Prov. xxx. 20.
c. to wipe one's hands of = to wash one's hands of (wash v. 3 e). Similarly to wipe one's lips of.
d. to wipe a person's eye (slang or colloq.): (a) Sporting, etc. (see quot. 1823); hence, to get the better of, ‘score off’; (b) to ‘give a black eye to’.
e. to wipe one's boots on: to inflict the utmost indignity upon. to wipe the floor with: to ‘bring to the ground’ utterly, inflict a crushing defeat upon; also to wipe up the floor or ground with.
a.1437–[see nose n. 10]. 1568tr. Gonsalvius' Inquis. 10 The party must..seeke to wipe their noses by shaping them a shorte aunswere. 1577Holinshed Chron. II. 323/2 Hee deuised a shifte howe to wype the Byshoppes nose of some of his Golde. 1598–1721 [see nose n. 10 b]. 1599–1600Minutes Archdeaconry of Colchester Jan. lf. 247 (MS.) Her husband..dyd saye that ‘I will wype the noses of you all’. 1842Asiatic Jrnl. XXXVII. i. 235 He once or twice, to borrow a not very delicate sporting phrase, ‘wiped my nose’ in a very off-hand manner. 1850R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour lvii, ‘I could have wiped your nose’, exclaimed Mr. Sponge, covering the hare with a hedge stake placed to his shoulder like a gun.
b.1687Good Advice 8, I know she flatters herself..she is a Bulwark against Popery; and with that,..wipes her Mouth of all old scores. 1690C. Nesse O. & N. Test. I. 95 This is alledged by the Romanists to wipe the mouth of the pope from being called the Antichrist.
c.1785J. Trusler Mod. Times III. 98, I was determined to wipe my hands of it. 1851D. Jerrold St. Giles xvi, With a late and hesitating virtue, they wiped their lips of the murderer's malt, and consented to believe him very bad indeed. 1855Trollope Warden x, That he could..wipe his hands altogether of so sorrow-stirring a concern.
d.1823Moor Suffolk Words s.v., In shooting, if one miss the bird, and a companion, firing after, kill it, the lucky, or more skilful gunner, is said to wipe the eye of his disappointed friend. 1860W. W. Reade Liberty Hall II. 207 If there is anything,..you shoot first, old boy, as it's your find: I'll stand by and wipe your eye. 1869Athenæum 14 Aug. 214/1 The personal question between the Society and its agents, of what is due from the latter to the former when its eye is to be wiped in the fashion above told. 1874R. H. Belcher Cramleigh Coll. I. 89 Hullo! Cheeky! it's Sunday, or else I'd wipe your eye for you. 1899Spectator 18 Mar. 385 Never so well-pleased as when he is wiping the eye of the professional burglar. 1928D. L. Sayers Unpleasantness at Bellona Club xiv. 168 ‘I'm glad somebody appreciates me. Anyhow,’ he added viciously, ‘I bet that's wiped old Pritchard's eye.’ 1929F. M. Ford Let. 11 Sept. (1965) 187 He had only got me away from Duckworth in order to wipe Gerald's eye. 1949N. Mitford Love in Cold Climate i. vi. 60 At teatime the village policeman reappeared.., having wiped the eye of all the grand detectives who had come from London in their shiny cars. He produced a perfect jumble-sale heap of objects which had been discarded by the burglars. 1956‘A. Gilbert’ And Death came Too xiv. 146 Eventually he agreed to take the case (his heel of Achilles being an inability to pass up a chance of wiping the official eye).
e.1887Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 4 Jan. 2/6 Two brothers wipe up the floor with a Missouri newspaper man. 1888in Farmer & Henley Slang (1903) vii. 359 The Scroggin boy was as tough as a dog-wood knot. He'd wipe up the ground with him; he'd walk all over him. 1896Dialect Notes I. 427 Wipe the floor with, to defeat. 1897Nat. Police Gaz. 26 May 7/4 Green fairly wiped the floor with Roberts in the first two rounds. 1899Mackail Morris II. 346 Though he often wiped his boots on a man, he never showed him the more stinging insolence of condescension. 1905‘G. Thorne’ Lost Cause ix, His only grief was that he was not allowed to ‘wipe the floor with that there Hamlyn’. 1908Magnet I. i. 3/1 I've wiped up the ground with bigger fellows than you, for far less cheek than you've given me. 1918‘G. A. Birmingham’ Island Myst. xxiv. 231 He was so infernally certain that the Emperor would wipe the floor with us.
11. The vb.-stem in combination, as wipe-clean attrib. or as adj., designating fabrics or furnishings that may be cleaned simply by wiping.
1962N.Y. Times Mag. 9 Sept. 102 In new wipe-clean Boltaflex Vinyl Suede. 1965Economist 13 Feb. 700/2 The [synthetic] shoes, although theoretically ‘wipe-clean’, tend to look grubby when unpolished. 1970Vogue Jan. 25/1 Lovely cookers with plain glass tops—put the pan down..and you are on the hob, yet this is a wipe-clean glass surface. 1977Austral. House & Garden Jan. 114 (Advt.), Interiors are wipe clean, white melamine laminate, edged in white P.V.C. 1983Which? Dec. (Publications Suppl.), Both binders are hardwearing and have wipe-clean covers.
Hence wiped |waɪpt| ppl. a. (see sense 3).
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Wiped Joint (Plumbing), one made by placing the parts in the required juxtaposition and covering the joint with a mass of solder.
Add:[6.] j. trans. With out. Of drink, etc.: to render intoxicated or senseless. Also fig., to overwhelm. slang (orig. U.S.).
1972Last Whole Earth Catalog (Portola Inst.) 67/3 She might have been able to go another hour or two if she hadn't drunk the beer she'd swiped from the Lone Outdoorsman the night before. But she did, and it wiped her out completely. 1972Jazz & Blues Sept. 8/1 When I heard Art it was a wipeout. He just wiped me out man. 1985Yeager & Janos Yeager (1986) 10 Dad grew some tobacco for his smoking; I tried chewing some and it wiped me out.
Add:[1.] e. = *swipe v. 5. Also, to pass (a light pen) over a bar code.
1985Daily Tel. 22 June 19/5 The retailer will wipe the card through a card reader and enter the details of the transaction. 1987Which? Dec. 565/1 When you hand over your card to pay, the shop assistant wipes it through the terminal. 1990What Satellite July 23/1 Another simple solution..is a barcode reader—you wipe a light pen over a barcode and—bingo!—the recorder's programmed itself.
▪ III. wipe
obs. f. weep v.; var. wype, lapwing. |