Definition of "swoop"

swoop

/ˈswuːp/

verb
third-person singular simple present swoops, present participle swooping, simple past and past participle swooped
1. (intransitive) To fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive.
2. (intransitive) To move swiftly, as if with a sweeping movement, especially to attack something.
  Quotations
  There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards.
  1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company
  Bridge of Weir: Protection of the site of the former Kilmacolm branch station (closed on January 3 1983) has been lifted, and developers have swooped in with plans for new housing.
  2022 January 12, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Scotland”, in RAIL, number 948, page 19
3. (transitive) To fall on at once and seize; to catch while on the wing.
  Quotations
  And his Eagles, which can with the same ease as a kite swoops a chicken, snatch up a strong built Chamber of wood 12 foot square, & well crampt & fortified with Iron, with all its furniture, & a man besides, & carry it to the Clouds?
  Quoted in 1971, The Scriblerian (volumes 4-5, page 2)
4. (transitive) To seize; to catch up; to take with a sweep.
  Quotations
  Thus the Phyſitian looks with another Eye on the Medicinal hearb, then the grazing Oxe, which ſwoops it in with the common graſs: […]
  1661, Joseph Glanvill, “An Apology for Philosophy”, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […]; reprinted in The Vanity of Dogmatizing […] (Series III: Philosophy; 6), New York, N.Y.: For the Facsimile Text Society by Columbia University Press, 1931, page 247
  And now at last you come to swoop it all.
  1670, John Dryden, The Conquest of Granada
5. (intransitive) To pass with pomp; to sweep.
  Quotations
  Proude Tamer swoopes along, with such a lustie traine / As fits so brave a flood two Countries that divides: […]
  1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, page 6
6. (Britain, prison slang) To search the ground for discarded cigarette butts that can be made into new cigarettes.
  Quotations
  He was forever diving into dustbins or swooping on to the ground for cigarette ends.
  1989, Michael Bettsworth, Marking Time: A Prison Memoir, page 32
  Swooping is picking up discarded cigarette butts from the exercise yard and anywhere else they can be found.
  2015, Noel 'Razor' Smith, The Criminal Alphabet: An A-Z of Prison Slang
noun
plural swoops
1. An instance, or the act of suddenly plunging downward.
  Quotations
  One evening, when the Boy was going to bed, he couldn't find the china dog that always slept with him. Nana was in a hurry, and it was too much trouble to hunt for china dogs at bedtime, so she simply looked about her, and seeing that the toy cupboard door stood open, she made a swoop.
  1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
2. A sudden act of seizing.
  Quotations
  Fortune's a right whore. If she give ought, she deals it in small parcels, that she may take away all at one swoop.
  1612, John Webster, The White Devil
3. (music) A quick passage from one note to the next.
  Quotations
  Originally, computers' attempts at making music were recognizable by their beeps and boops and weird swoops.
  2008, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies, page 281

Definition of "swoop"

swoop

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noun

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