swab

n 1: small piece of cotton used to apply medication, cleanse a

wound, or obtain a specimen of a secretion

2: absorbent material fastened to a handle; for cleaning floors

[syn: {swob}, {mop}]

v 1: wash with a swab or a mop; "Mop the floors" [syn: {mop}, {swob}]

2: apply (usually a liquid) to a surface [syn: {dab}, {swob}]

swab

/swob/ The {PDP-11} swap byte instruction mnemonic, as

immortalised in the {dd} option "conv◦swab".

1. To solve the {NUXI problem} by swapping bytes in a file.

2. The program in V7 Unix used to perform this action, or

anything functionally equivalent to it.

See also {big-endian}, {little-endian}, {middle-endian},

{bytesexual}.

[{Jargon File}]