Definitions for swabs

• Definition
• Anagrams (39)

swabs swab

Spelling: [swob]

IPA: /swɒb/

Swabs is a 5 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 9 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 10 points.

You can make 39 anagrams from letters in swabs (abssw).

Definitions for swabs

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)

1. to clean with or as if with a swab:
2. to take up or apply, as moisture, with or as if with a swab:
3. to pass over a surface:

Origin of swabs

First recorded in 1645-55; back formation from swabber

Examples for swabs

Lower down that foresail, you swab, lower down that foresail!

I understand: you did not perceive before that I had shipped the swab.

How could I permit that swab to mock me and abuse my father as a thief?

A line bent to the eye of a swab for dipping it overboard in washing it.

“Here, you, get a swab and mop that up,” I commanded in my harshest manner.

Then clear out on deck and swab the curry off your face, you beast!

Ill teach you how to sail a schooner and how to go about barefoot and swab decks.

She submitted to a DNA swab after some discussions between the authorities and her lawyer.

No, it was the swab,” said Harry, “but we lost our net and all the gear last night.

Had not he possessed that, he would not have been at the head of the firm of Crank, Trunnion & swab.