Noun: swab
Sample Sentences
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As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is. [1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 25, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:]
Nouns inflected like swab
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
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 ("scrubber, mop, swab") See: Middle English Nouns '
swabber', German Nouns '
Schwabber'.