swabber

English

Alternative forms

• swobber

Etymology

From swab +‎ -er.

Noun

swabber (plural swabbers)

1. One who swabs a floor or deck.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I,
     The gunner, and his mate,
     Lov'd Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery,
     But none of us car'd for Kate: […]

2. An instrument for swabbing.
   • 2017, Emily Suvada, This Mortal Coil, page 337:

     Meaningless filler code that shouldn't interact with a person's DNA. […] He pulls a pen-size swabber from his pocket, chrome finished with a needle point on one end, and a pad for swabbing on the other.

3. A baker's implement for cleaning ovens.
4. (nautical, historical) An interior officer on British warships, responsible for seeing that the ship was kept clean.
5. (card games) Four privileged cards, formerly used in betting in whist.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “swabber”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)