swoop

verb

1. 1

   To fly or glide downwards suddenly; to plunge (in the air) or nosedive.

   The lone eagle swooped down into the lake, snatching its prey, a small fish.

2. 2

   To move swiftly, as if with a sweeping movement, especially to attack something.

   The dog had enthusiastically swooped down on the bone.

   There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards.

   Bridge of Weir: Protection of the site of the former Kilmacolm branch station (closed on January 3 1983) has been lifted, and developers have swooped in with plans for new housing.

3. 3

   To fall on at once and seize; to catch while on the wing.

   And his Eagles, which can with the same ease as a kite swoops a chicken, snatch up a strong built Chamber of wood 12 foot square, & well crampt & fortified with Iron, with all its furniture, & a man besides, & carry it to the Clouds?

4. 4

   To seize; to catch up; to take with a sweep.

   Thus the Phyſitian looks with another Eye on the Medicinal hearb, then the grazing Oxe, which ſwoops it in with the common graſs: […]

   And now at last you come to swoop it all.

5. 5

   To pass with pomp; to sweep.

   Proude Tamer swoopes along, with such a lustie traine / As fits so brave a flood two Countries that divides: […]

6. 6

   slangTo search the ground for discarded cigarette butts that can be made into new cigarettes.

   He was forever diving into dustbins or swooping on to the ground for cigarette ends.

   Swooping is picking up discarded cigarette butts from the exercise yard and anywhere else they can be found.

noun

1. 1

   An instance, or the act of suddenly plunging downward.

   The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim. – Sun Tzu

   One evening, when the Boy was going to bed, he couldn't find the china dog that always slept with him. Nana was in a hurry, and it was too much trouble to hunt for china dogs at bedtime, so she simply looked about her, and seeing that the toy cupboard door stood open, she made a swoop.

   The switchback road to Diabaig - pronounced 'Jer-vague' - passes through some of the most exhilarating scenery in Scotland. […] With a final swoop, the road plummets down into Diabaig, where cottages are dotted across the slopes of a rocky semi-circle.

2. 2

   A sudden act of seizing.

   Fortune's a right whore. If she give ought, she deals it in small parcels, that she may take away all at one swoop.

3. 3

   A quick passage from one note to the next.

   Originally, computers' attempts at making music were recognizable by their beeps and boops and weird swoops.

4. 4

   A group of swallows or other birds.

   an entire swoop of swallows plunges into a breach in time, so they can get across the pass at just the right moment.

   There was a lark in the sky, a chatter of rooks, and the swoop of swallows arrived to-day.

   A swoop of birds fly overhead, their shadows patterning the ground, but the sheep keep the stripes of their orange eyes on me, and even though I have nothing to offer, they follow me, on the other side of the fence.

   Lestrade tugged his muffler closer about his throat and eyed a swoop of gulls balefully as they taunted their wingtips against the water.

Forms

plural

swoops

past tense

swooped

past participle

swooped

present participle

swooping

third person singular

swoops