I. swab 1 /swɒb $ swɑːb/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Date: 1600-1700 ; Origin: Probably from early Dutch swabbe ]
1 . a small piece of material used to clean a wound or take a small amount of a substance from someone’s body in order to test it:
a cotton swab
2 . a small amount of a substance that is taken from someone’s body with a swab in order to test it:
The doctor took a throat swab to check for infection.
II. swab 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle swabbed , present participle swabbing ) [transitive]
1 . ( also swab something ↔ down ) to clean something using a large amount of water:
a girl who was swabbing the tiled floor with a mop
2 . to clean a wound with a small piece of special material