swab

also n.

1. 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, swob·bing, swabs, 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).]

[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.

---

n. 1. a piece of absorbent material used for cleaning the bore of a firearm.

2. a mop or other absorbent device for cleaning or mopping up a floor or other surface.

3. another term for swabbie.

v. swabbed, swabbing

clean (a surface) with a swab: swabbing down the decks.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

1. a small pledget of cotton or gauze wrapped around the end of a slender wooden stick or wire for applying medications or obtaining specimens of secretions, etc., from body surfaces or orifices.
2. use of a swab to collect a specimen, e.g. collection of a sample of saliva for testing horses for doping.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - svaber, klodsmajor, epaulet, vatpind
v. tr. - svabre, tørre op, pensle

Nederlands (Dutch)
watje, wattenstokje, dweil, klungel

Français (French)
n. - (Méd) tampon, (Méd) prélèvement, serpillière, (Naut) faubert
v. tr. - (Méd) nettoyer (qch) avec un tampon, tamponner (une blessure), (Naut, gén) laver (un pont, un sol)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Tupfer, Abstrich, (mar.) Dweil
v. - wischen, betupfen, schwabbern

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πατσαβούρα, σφουγγαρόπανο, (ιατρ.) βύσμα, ταμπόν, (αργκό) λέτσος
v. - σφουγγίζω, σφουγγαρίζω

Italiano (Italian)
bastoncino di cotone, campione, strofinaccio, passare lo strofinaccio

Português (Portuguese)
n. - mecha (f)
v. - limpar

Русский (Russian)
швабра, помело, тампон, мазок, банник, щетка банника, мыть шваброй, подтирать, вытирать тампоном

Español (Spanish)
n. - tapón, fregajo, estropajo
v. tr. - limpiar, fregar

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - svabb, bomullstopp, skurtrasa, tampongpinne, vaddpensel, sekretprov, klumpeduns
v. - svabba, torka med våt trasa, tvätta

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
医用海绵, 药签, 纱布, 拭子, 打扫, 涂抹于, 擦拭

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 醫用海綿, 藥簽, 紗布, 拭子
v. tr. - 打掃, 塗抹於, 擦拭

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 자루 걸레, 면봉
v. tr. - 걸레질하다, 면봉으로 약칠하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ぞうきんぼうき, モップ, 綿棒, 肩章, 不器用者
v. - 綿棒で薬を付ける, 綿棒で塗る

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) قطعه قطن تستخدم لتنظيف الجروح (فعل) يمسح أو ينظف باستخدام قطعه قطن طبي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סחבה, מטלית, חומר ספוגי, דגימת ליחה, אדם מגושם‬
v. tr. - ‮שטף, ניקה, ניגב, נטל דגימת ליחה‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.

clarinet silk swab