swab

Word family

Related topics: Hospital

swab1 /swɒb $ swɑːb/ noun [countableC]

1 MHa 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 〔医用〕拭子，药棉棒

a cotton swab

棉签

2 MHa small amount of a substance that is taken from someone’s body with a swab in order to test it 〔用拭子采集的〕化验样本

The doctor took a throat swab to check for infection.

医生用拭子从咽喉取样检查是否有感染。

Examples from the Corpus

swab• He covered my newest wound with a swab of alcohol and a lozenge of gauze.• It is later learned he might also be getting an alcohol swab as well.• Have each student dip a cotton swab in purple grape juice and rub it over the paper.• He remembers the glass jars filled with cotton swabs, tongue depressors, latex gloves.• Earlier this month traces of Salmonella typhimurium were found in swabs taken from the hen house.• Rectal swabs were cultured for chlamydia.

swab2 verb (swabbed, swabbing) [transitiveT]

1 (also swab something ↔ down)TTWDHC to clean something using a large amount of water 擦洗，擦拭

a girl who was swabbing the tiled floor with a mop

一个正在用拖布拖洗地砖的女孩

2. MHto clean a wound with a small piece of special material 〔用拭子等〕拭抹〔伤口〕

Examples from the Corpus

swab• At Twentieth and Blake he saw a man swabbing a garbage truck.• He studied her face as she cleaned the skin of the boy's right shoulder and swabbed a patch with alcohol.• As they leaned against a red brick wall, a portly prison system official swabbed at the sweat trickling into his collar.• There was no time for emotion as the blood was swabbed away and she concentrated on the badly gashed cheekbone.• She sits in a soft curve at her easel, gently swabbing away three centuries from a grumpy London sky.• Isaac swabbed perspiration from above his haunted eyes with a rag he kept handy for cleaning the windshield.• After a Pap smear is done, the doctor simply swabs vinegar on the cervix and shines the blue-white light on it.

Origin swab1

(1600-1700) Probably from early Dutch swabbe

Chinese

Corpus