swoop
/ˈswuːp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.20 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To move swiftly, as if with a sweeping movement, especially to attack something.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The lone eagle swooped down into the lake, snatching its prey, a small fish."
- "The dog had enthusiastically swooped down on the bone."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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?"
- "Thus the Phyſitian looks with another Eye on the Medicinal hearb, then the grazing Oxe, which ſwoops it in with the common graſs: […]"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *swaipaną Proto-West Germanic *swaipan Old English swāpan Middle English swopen English swoop Inherited from Middle English swopen (“to sweep”), from Old English swāpan. Doublet of swaip. See also sweep, which was probably the basis for analogical restoration of /w/ in this word.
Usage
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb
- British usage
- Slang