Definition of "swab"

swab

/swɒb/

noun
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.
  Quotations
  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
6. (slang) A naval officer's epaulet.
verb
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, in Mr. Pratt's Patients