wipe
part of speech
verb (wipe, wipes, wiped, wiping); noun (a wipe, wipes — a damp cloth for cleaning)
meaning for a pupil
1) To wipe something means to rub it with a cloth, tissue or your hand to clean or dry it. tree →
2) To wipe something away or off means to remove it by rubbing. tree →
3) To wipe out means to destroy completely. tree →
4) A wipe is a small damp cloth used for cleaning. tree →
sense in the lessons
In hygiene lessons: wipe your nose with a tissue, wipe your bottom from front to back after using the toilet, wipe surfaces where food is made. In safety, wipe up spills so nobody slips. In computing, to wipe a device means to delete everything on it. Phrases: wipe your feet, wipe your nose, wipe clean, wipe out, wipe away tears, baby wipes.
examples
- Wipe your feet on the mat before you come in. tree →
- Please wipe the table after lunch. tree →
- She wiped away her tears. tree →
- Use a tissue to wipe your nose. tree →
- Wipe up the spilt water so nobody slips. tree →
- The teacher wiped the board clean. tree →
- A huge wave wiped out the sandcastle. tree →
- We used baby wipes to clean our sticky hands. tree →
- And he wiped away a tear. tree →
note
Regular verb: wiped, wiping (drop the «e»). «Wipe» means rub gently; «scrub» means rub hard. Wet wipes should go in the bin, not down the toilet, because they block pipes.
In the corpora
- Male ring-tailed lemurs have stink fights, wiping scent onto their tails and waving them at rivals.
- Edward Jenner made the first vaccine in 1796 from cowpox, and smallpox was declared wiped out worldwide in 1980.
- Spills on the floor should be wiped up at once, because wet floors cause slips and falls.
- Wiping from front to back after the toilet stops germs from the bottom reaching where you wee.
- Only toilet paper is flushed, and only as much as needed, because wipes, toys and too much paper block the pipes.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «wipe» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.