swab

Mid 17th century (in the sense 'mop for cleaning the decks'): back-formation from Middle English swabber (“sailor detailed to swab decks”), from Middle Dutch zwabber, from a Germanic base meaning 'splash' or 'sway', also found as nautical German Schwabber and Volga German Schwabber, a general term for cleaning tissues.

• enPR: swŏb, IPA^(key): /swɒb/
• Rhymes: -ɒb

swab (plural swabs)

1. (medicine) A small piece of soft, absorbent material, such as gauze, used to clean wounds, apply medicine, or take samples of body fluids. Often attached to a stick or wire to aid access.
2. A sample taken with a swab (piece of absorbent material).
3. A piece of material used for cleaning or sampling other items like musical instruments or guns.
4. A mop, especially on a ship.
5. (slang) A sailor; a swabby.
   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, ch. 25:

     As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is.

6. (slang) A naval officer's epaulet.

• (sailor): swabby

swab (third-person singular simple present swabs, present participle swabbing, simple past and past participle swabbed)

1. (transitive) To use a swab on something, or clean something with a swab.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.

   swab the deck of a ship

• AWBs, wabs