swab n.
1. an unpleasant person.
 | London’s Triumph 7: Twelve Yeoman bearing blunderbusses [...] Besides Green-men, Swabs, Satyrs, and Attendants innumerable. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Wooden World Dissected 64: He’s not very backward in propagating his Science [...] provided always, that the Swab consign him over his Wages for his Labour. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Fair Quaker of Deal I i: If the Government did but know what a Swabb thou art, I should be knighted for cutting thy Throat. | |
| Compter Scuffle 12: Wer’t not for us, thou Swab (quoth he) / Where would thou Fog to get a Fee? | |
| Roderick Random (1979) 17: None of your jaw, you swab — none of your jaw, replied my uncle. [Ibid.] 222: He swore woundily at the lieutenant, and called him lousy Scotch son of a whore and swab. | |
| Reprisal II xiv: You drunken swab. | |
| ‘Poor Jack’ in Bullfinch 200: Go patter to lubbers and swabs, d’ye see. | |
| ‘Bill Bobstay’ in Collection of Songs II 124: Why the lubberly swabs, ev’ry fool can tell that. | |
| ‘Dick Dock’ in A Garland of New Songs (60) 5: Do you think it fun you swab. | |
| Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 19: Mrs. Harley [...] d—d the fifer for an ungrateful thankless ingrate and swab. | |
| Quid 234: Fid [...] seized the snake by the tail and hove him overboard, saying, ‘There you go, you swab!’. | |
| Our Village II ii: Why, you swab! | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 22 Oct. n.p.: He offered ten dollars to any person who would inform him of the whereabouts of the ‘swab’ that signed his name ‘Hector’. | |
| ‘Poor Jack’ in Jack Tar’s Songster 5: Go patter to lubbers and swabs, do ye see, / ’Bout danger, and fear and the like. | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 11 Oct. n.p.: One of the swabs who never pays for what he drinks, but sponges all he can get. | |
| N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 3/2: Amanada Hess [...] has been keeping company with a swab, whose name was Clark Smith. | |
| Newcastle Courant 4 May 6/3: His non-promotion has been due to independence of spirit [...] his ‘not having boot-licked the swabs above him’. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Treasure Island 19: Doctors is all swabs. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 7/2: Of the two shows, [...] the Alhambra is evidently the more popular, and it is there the low lived, bull-headed swab most doth congregate when he wants to steep his slab sided soul in bliss. | |
| Moran of the Lady Letty 15: If this swab ain’t up to sample, he’ll come back by freight. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 7 Oct. 8/4: ‘Wot d’ye know ’bout killin’ and butcherin’, ye swab,’ sez the Captain . | |
| Shorty McCabe 236: Do you hear that, you peanut-headed, scissor-shanked whelp? [...] you wall-eyed deck swab. | |
| Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 13 July 12/4: ‘Having been told by this ’ere swab as the missus of the house [...] ain’t in’. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 22 Jan. 11/7: A dirty rich old josser, / What’s a fat and filthy swab. | |
| Harrovians 49: All right, you swob; wait till I’m on boy. | |
| Washington Herald (DC) 28 Nov. 27/6: ‘You pot-rattlin’ swab! I’m, cap’n of this here ship [...] an’ if I want to get squiffed, I gets squiffed’. | |
| Union Jack 5 May 18: Lay on to the swab, Puggy, my lad! | |
| Black Gang 410: They’re mixed up with that swab I’ve just kicked down the stairs. | |
| Haxby’s Circus 74: ‘Swob,’ Nurse Edie said indignantly. | |
| Tramp and Other Stories 50: All these town bitches are the same . . . don’t think a farm-hand’s good enough . . . only time for some swab that works in a shop or office. | |
| Whizzbang Comics 64: We’ll give those swabs something to think about yet! | |
| Big Smoke 32: Gah, the black swab—what’s he know about tactics? | |
| A Little of What You Fancy (1985) 542: You swab. You dare suggest it. |
2. in naval senses [the swab or mop used to clean the deck].
(a) a naval officer.
| in Britannic Mag. I 25/2: And there’s never a swab but the captain knows the stem from the stern of the ship. | |
| Old Booty! 35: May the swabs live upon salt junk. | |
| White Jacket II 289: Touch your tile whenever a swob (officer) speaks to you. |
(b) the epaulette worn by a naval or military officer.
| Naval Sketchbk I 37: Admiral’s office — dowsed swabs* —ditto gold-laced scraper† [note] *Epaulets †Gold-laced cocked-hat. | |
| Guards 98: [A]n epaulette is a weighty matter in a greenhorn Ensign’s mind ; it must not hang like a swab dingle dangle in front, so as to make a young gentleman narrow-chested. | |
| Peter Simple (1911) 337: You did not perceive before that I had shipped the swab. Yes, I’m lieutenant of the Rattlesnake. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Memoirs of a Griffin I 38: A hanger banging against his heels [...] a tarnished swab (epaulette) on his shoulder. | |
| Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Feb. 17/1: For the model Old Cadet has been celebrated for the numerous rows and scrapes he has been in [...] which will account most satisfactorily for the non-appearance of ‘swabs’ on his shoulders. |
(c) a loblolly boy, i.e. a junior seaman used for a variety of jobs, typically surgeon’s assistant.
| Memoirs of a Griffin I 40: Two or three ruddy, lusty lads, who had come out as swabs, or loblolly boys, and were making their first voyage. |
(d) (US) a merchant seaman, a sailor in the US Navy.
| Fields of Fire (1980) 27: Most guys wait till they been in a while. Like that swab was just in here. Gave him a goddam anchor. | |
| (con. 1940s) Hold Tight (1990) 18: ‘Can you teach me that dance?’ The soldier was grinning [...] ‘You, swab?’. |
3. (Aus.) a derog. term for an Aboriginal woman.
| Coonardoo 138: Bardi’s a lazy little swob ... not too clean. [Ibid.] 300: A dirty old swob come in from the bush to Monty Blood’s place. |