wiper

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪpɚ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪpə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

wipe +‎ -er

Noun

wiper (plural wipers)

1. Someone who wipes.
   • 1842, Robert Browning, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, in Dramatic Lyrics:

     So, Willy, let you and me be wipers / Of scores out with all men — especially pipers!

2. Something, such as a towel, that is used for wiping.
3. Something, such as a windscreen wiper, that is designed for wiping.
4. A movable electric contact in some devices.
5. (nautical) A junior role in the engine room of a ship, someone who wipes down machinery and generally keeps it clean.
6. (obsolete, slang) An impertinent young man.
   • 1876, George Staunton Brodie, Vagrant Verses: And a Play, page 163:

     I ask you now, ain't honesty a-written on my feechurs? / I say the wiper should be scorched who'd rob his feller-creatures.

Derived terms

• windshield wiper
• wiper wheel

 

Translations

someone who wipes

• Finnish: pyyhkijä (fi)
• Italian: tergicristallo (it)

something used for wiping

• Arabic: مِمْسَحَة f (mimsaḥa), مِمْسَح m (mimsaḥ)
• Bulgarian: бърсалка (bg) f (bǎrsalka)
• Finnish: pyyhe (fi) (towel); pyyhin (fi)
• Galician: rodelo m, baeta (gl) f
• Kaurna: wirrkati
• Russian: тря́пка (ru) f (trjápka) (cloth), полоте́нце (ru) n (poloténce) (towel), салфе́тка (ru) f (salfétka) (napkin, paper towel)

something designed for wiping

• Danish: visker c
• Esperanto: viŝilo
• Finnish: pyyhin (fi), pyyhkijä (fi)
• Hindi: कछना (hi) (kachnā), कछनी (hi) (kachnī)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: visker m

• Russian: дво́рник (ru) m (dvórnik) (windshield wiper)

movable electric contact

• Bulgarian: контактна четка f (kontaktna četka)
• Finnish: pyyhkäisykosketin

nautical: junior role in the engine room

Etymology 2

From white (bass) and striper.

Noun

wiper (countable and uncountable, plural wipers)

1. A hybrid fish variety artificially bred from eggs of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) fertilized with white bass (Morone chrysops) sperm, or the opposite combination.
   • 1983, Kansas Fish, Game Commission, “Fishing”, in Kansas Wildlife, page 16:

     As is the customary method for catching wipers at Keith Sebelius Reservoir, the trio was trolling with crank baits.

   • 2013 January 23, Texas State University San Marcos Department of Biology, “Morone saxatilis”, in Texas Freshwater Fishes‎^[1]:

     M. saxatilis X M. chrysops hybrids (wipers) are difficult to distinguish, showing intermediacy from parental types in basihyal tooth formation

   • 2021 April 23, Stephen Klobucar, “The history and mystery of hybrid fishes”, in Meat Eater‎^[2]:

     With good reason, wipers are among the most stocked hybrid gamefish in the United States. They won’t rival actual stripers for overall size, but wiper find a happy medium between the revered striper and the much smaller, pesky white bass.