Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who uses a swab.
- noun A swab or mop.
- noun Slang A sailor.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who uses a swab; hence, in contempt, a fellow fit only to use a swab.
- noun A bakers' implement for cleaning the oven. It consists of a bunch of netting on the end of a long pole, and is wetted for use.
- noun plural Certain cards at whist the holder of which appears formerly to have been entitled to a part of the Stakes.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb rare To swab.
- noun One who swabs a floor or desk.
- noun (Naut.) Formerly, an interior officer on board of British ships of war, whose business it was to see that the ship was kept clean.
- noun Same as
Swobber , 2.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who
swabs afloor ordeck . - noun nautical, historical An interior
officer onBritish warships , responsible for seeing that the ship was keptclean . - noun card games Four privileged
cards , formerly used inbetting inwhist .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Johnson, no stranger to family comedy/chase films (“Race to Witch Mountain,” “The Game Plan”), manages to convey the bubbly warm and mildly dimwitted personality of the fish out of space, while Justin Long (“Mac” in all those wonderful Apple TV commercials) voices Lem, a geeky teenager/student by day and a floor-swabber at the local planetarium by night, who half-heartedly befriends the human visitor.
Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat 2009
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There was no order among us — he that was captain today, was swabber tomorrow; and as for plunder — they say old Avery, and one or two close hunks, made money; but in my time, all went as it came; and reason good, for if a fellow had saved five dollars, his throat would have been cut in his hammock.
Redgauntlet 2008
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It is "Down and Out in Paris and London," George Orwell's pungent memoir of a youth misspent, in part, as a lowly pot-swabber in some of the great kitchens of France, a half century before Bourdain first picked up a Brillo pad.
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All these engines and motors and pumps dripped oil, water, fuel constantly, so one of the engineers was pretty much a dedicated swabber.
The Whale Warriors Peter Heller 2007
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All these engines and motors and pumps dripped oil, water, fuel constantly, so one of the engineers was pretty much a dedicated swabber.
The Whale Warriors Peter Heller 2007
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No, good swabber; I am to hull here a little longer.
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A loader of supplies in every port, a swabber of decks, repairer of ropes-with the hemp-torn flesh to prove that - he did not mind the fee.
Dalamar the Dark Berberick, Nancy Varian 2000
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A pilot who cant figure that out in five minutes, when we use the same basic design, should be broken down to galley swabber and set to peeling electrons.
A Circus of Hells Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1969
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Linschoten, describing a Portuguese ship's company, dismisses them with three contemptuous words, "the swabers pump"; but alas, that was but the first duty of your true swabber.
On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. John Masefield 1922
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Sleeping-place; (to clean the cabins of the petty officers in the nether orlop), and to admonish them all in general [it being dangerous perhaps, in a poor swabber, to admonish in particular] to be cleanly and handsom, and to complain to the Captain, of all such as will be any way nastie and offensive that way.
On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. John Masefield 1922
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