SWOOP

swoop

(noun) a swift descent through the air

swoop

(noun) a very rapid raid

swoop, slide

(noun) (music) rapid sliding up or down the musical scale; “the violinist was indulgent with his swoops and slides”

swoop, swoop up

(verb) seize or catch with a swooping motion

pounce, swoop

(verb) move down on as if in an attack; “The raptor swooped down on its prey”; “The teacher swooped down upon the new students”

swoop

(verb) move with a sweep, or in a swooping arc

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

swoop (third-person singular simple present swoops, present participle swooping, simple past and past participle swooped)

(intransitive) To fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive.

(intransitive) To move swiftly, as if with a sweeping movement, especially to attack something.

(transitive) To fall on at once and seize; to catch while on the wing.

(transitive) To seize; to catch up; to take with a sweep.

To pass with pomp; to sweep.

Noun

swoop (plural swoops)

An instance, or the act of suddenly plunging downward.

A sudden act of seizing.

(music) A quick passage from one note to the next.

Source: Wiktionary


Swoop, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swooped; p. pr. & vb. n. Swooping.] Etym: [OE. swopen, usually, to sweep, As. swapan to sweep, to rush; akin to G. schweifen to rove, to ramble, to curve, OHG. sweifan to whirl, Icel. sveipa to sweep; also to AS. swifan to move quickly. Cf. Sweep, Swift, a. & n., Swipe, Swivel.]

1. To fall on at once and seize; to catch while on the wing; as, a hawk swoops a chicken.

2. To seize; to catch up; to take with a sweep. And now at last you came to swoop it all. Dryden. The grazing ox which swoops it [the medicinal herb] in with the common grass. Glanvill.

Swoop, v. i.

1. To descend with closed wings from a height upon prey, as a hawk; to swoop.

2. To pass with pomp; to sweep. [Obs.] Drayton.

Swoop, n.

Definition: A falling on and seizing, as the prey of a rapacious bird; the act of swooping. The eagle fell, . . . and carried away a whole litter of cubs at a swoop. L'Estrange.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

29 March 2024

FAULTFINDING

(adjective) tending to make moral judgments or judgments based on personal opinions; “a counselor tries not to be faultfinding”


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Coffee Trivia

Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.

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