wipe

(navigation) The process of reducing the amount of permanent magnetism in a naval vessel by placing a single coil horizontally around the vessel and moving it, while energized, up and down along the sides of the vessel.

(1) To completely erase data from memory or the hard disk. See file wipe.

(2) A digital video effect that places one image over another. Although there are a myriad varieties, the classic wipe is a scene transition where the next scene slides horizontally or vertically over the current one. Another common wipe is the circle wipe. A small circle that contains another scene starts to grow in the middle of the current frame and gradually fills the entire frame.

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