swipes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of swipe.

   The columnist's piece was full of swipes at the mayor's record.

   Several swipes of the keycard finally unlocked the door.

   Note

   Every count use of the noun pluralizes alike: sweeping blows, quick grabs, card readings, touchscreen gestures, rough guesses. The informal critical sense takes at for its target, as in swipes at the mayor's record. Spelling alone will not settle which word is meant, because the weak-beer word carries the same -s and is not a plural at all.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of swipe.

   The cashier swipes each item past the scanner without looking up.

   Our cat swipes at anything that dangles near its paw.

   Note

   Behind the -s sits a verb with two habits. Without an object it means a quick grab or bat, often aimed with at (the cat swipes at the string). With an object it can strike, slide a card through a reader, steal, or move a finger across a screen. The same spelling is also the plural noun, so a phrase like swipes at the mayor can be read either way.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Beer of poor quality and low strength, or any similarly cheap alcoholic drink.

   Like coffee brewed from grounds already used once: thin, pale, and lacking any real strength.

   The soldiers grumbled over their ration of flat, sour swipes.

   All the tavern had left was a barrel of thin, cheap swipes.

   Similarswipe

   Note

   A mass noun that only looks plural: swipe and swipes name the same thin drink, and neither is counted. The natural frame is a quantity word, such as a ration of swipes or a barrel of swipes. Its usual companions are disparaging adjectives like flat, sour, thin and cheap, which pile onto a complaint the word already makes.

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