What is "wipe"

Wipe \Wipe\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wiped; p. pr. & vb. n. Wiping.] [OE. vipen, AS. w[=i]pian; cf. LG. wiep a wisp of straw, Sw. vepa to wrap up, to cuddle one's self up, vepa a blanket; perhaps akin to E. whip.]

1. To rub with something soft for cleaning; to clean or dry by rubbing; as, to wipe the hands or face with a towel.

   Let me wipe thy face.
   --Shak.

   I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
   --2 Kings xxi. 13.

2. To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; -- usually followed by away, off or out. Also used figuratively. ``To wipe out our ingratitude.''
   --Shak.

   Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon.
   --Milton.

3. To cheat; to defraud; to trick; -- usually followed by out. [Obs.]
   --Spenser.

   If they by coveyne [covin] or gile be wiped beside their goods.
   --Robynson (More's Utopia)

   To wipe a joint (Plumbing), to make a joint, as between pieces of lead pipe, by surrounding the junction with a mass of solder, applied in a plastic condition by means of a rag with which the solder is shaped by rubbing.

   To wipe the nose of, to cheat. [Old Slang]

Wipe \Wipe\, n.

1. Act of rubbing, esp. in order to clean.

2. A blow; a stroke; a hit; a swipe. [Low]

3. A gibe; a jeer; a severe sarcasm.
   --Swift.

4. A handkerchief. [Thieves' Cant or Slang]

5. Stain; brand. [Obs.] ``Slavish wipe.''
   --Shak.

Wipe \Wipe\, n. [Cf. Sw. vipa, Dan. vibe, the lapwing.] (Zo["o]l.) The lapwing. [Prov. Eng.]

1640s, "act of wiping," from wipe (v.). From 1708 as "something used in wiping" (especially a handkerchief); 1971 as "disposable absorbent tissue."

Old English wipian "to wipe, cleanse," from Proto-Germanic *wipjan "to move back and forth" (cognates: Danish vippe, Middle Dutch, Dutch vippen, Old High German wifan "to swing"), from PIE *weip- "to turn, vacillate, tremble" (source of Latin vibrare "to shake;" see vibrate).

Etymology 1 n. 1 The act of wiping something. 2 A soft piece of cloth or cloth-like material used for wiping. 3 A kind of film transition where one shot replaces another by travelling from one side of the frame to another or with a special shape. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (''cf.'' rub) 2 (context transitive English) To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; usually followed by ''away'', ''off'', or ''out''. 3 (context obsolete English) To cheat; to defraud; to trick; usually followed by ''out''. 4 (context transitive computing English) To erase. 5 (context transitive plumbing English) To make (a joint, as between pieces of lead pipe), by surrounding the junction with a mass of solder, applied in a plastic condition by means of a rag with which the solder is shaped by rubbing. 6 (context figurative English) To change one's demeanour or facial expression. Etymology 2

n. The lapwing.

n. the act of rubbing or wiping; "he gave the hood a quick rub" [syn: rub]

v. rub with a circular motion; "wipe the blackboard" [syn: pass over]

Wipe means to clean a surface by rubbing something on it, but it is used in other contexts:

• Wiping, a process in which old television and radio recordings were overwritten, erased, or destroyed
• Wipe (transition), a gradual transition in film editing
• Wipe curtain, a kind of theater curtain
• In plumbing, a wiped joint is one created when two pipes are joined by solder as it re-solidifies after melting
• Total party kill, in roleplaying games, when an entire group is killed by hostile units
• Data erasure, purging a computer file to counter data remanence
• Bathroom hygiene, particularly in reference to wet wipes. See Anal cleansing and toilet paper

thumb|300px|Examples of various wipe transitions

A wipe is a type of film transition where one shot replaces another by travelling from one side of the frame to another or with a special shape. If the wipe proceeds from two opposite edges of the screen toward the center or vice versa, it is known as a barn door wipe (named for its similarity to a pair of doors opening or closing).

The following are some specific styles of wipes:

• An iris slow is a wipe that takes the shape of a growing or shrinking circle. It has been frequently used in animated short subjects, such as those in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon series, to signify the end of a story. When used in this manner, the iris wipe may be centered on a certain focal point and may be used as a device for a "parting shot" joke, a fourth wall-breaching wink by a character, or other purposes.
• A star wipe is a wipe that takes the shape of a growing or shrinking star, and is used to impart a sense of "extra specialness" or "added value." An example of the "star wipe" can be seen in the Guiding Light opening sequences of the 1980s. This convention was considered overused during that time period and is now generally thought to be somewhat out-of-date. The use was parodied in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters and " The Simpsons".
• A heart wipe is a wipe that takes the shape of a growing or shrinking heart, and is used to impart a sense of "love" or "friendship." The heart wipe is still used in wedding, graduation, and bar mitzvah videos, among others, as it has now passed from stylistic into the realm of standard convention, though many people consider it tacky.
• A matrix wipe is a patterned transition between two images. The matrix wipe can be various patterns such as a grid, stars, etc.
• A clock wipe is a wipe that sweeps a radius around the center point of the frame to reveal the subsequent shot, like the sweeping hands of an analog clock. Because of this similarity, it is often used to indicate that time has passed between the previous shot and the next shot. One of the TV shows that used the effect is Regular Show. The Red Green Show also makes frequent use of this wipe style, featuring an animated roll of duct tape, and accompanied by the loud "yanking tape off a roll" sound effect.
• The most common uses of the wipe effect is the "Invisible Wipe" where a camera follows a person into another room by tracking parallel to the actor. As the wall passes in front of the camera, the editor has the option of using a wipe to be able to choose any other matching take of the same scene. It is also commonly used in quick camera pans in action sequences, to make a cut invisible. Such wipes can be impossible to see in the finished film. A good example of this wipe can be seen in the movie Das Boot when director Wolfgang Petersen uses it to pan between two occupied u-boat pens, even though they had only one u-boat for filming.
• Some extremely effective (and expensive) wipes were used in the otherwise very low-budget Laurel and Hardy short film Thicker than Water. For each of the scene changes in this film, either Laurel or Hardy or both of them would seize a curtain or some other object at the edge of the frame and move it across the screen. The opening frames of the next scene were optically printed onto this object, so that—when the object entirely filled the screen—the movie had "wiped" the last shot of the previous scene and begun the first shot of the next.

The earliest known example of a wipe was George Albert Smith's Mary Jane's Mishap of 1903.

George Lucas made sweeping use of wipes in his Star Wars films, inspired by a similar use of wipes by Akira Kurosawa.

Category:Film editing Category:Cinematic techniques