Swoop

How to spell swoop

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce swoop

What does swoop mean?

1. verbTo move rapidly and smoothly downward through the air, or to make a sudden sweeping rush.
2. nounA sudden downward rush or sweeping movement, often a dive or a raid.

Swoop in a sentence

• verb

  The falcon would swoop from the cliff to seize its prey.

• noun

  The owl caught the mouse in a single silent swoop.

• verb

  Police plan to swoop on the warehouse at dawn.

• noun

  The deal cleared every debt in one fell swoop.

Where does swoop come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Swoop traces back to the Old English verb swapan, which meant to sweep, to drive along, or to rush, and which is the same ancestor that gave us the modern word sweep. The two words are essentially twins from Germanic roots that described broad, brushing motion. Over the centuries the spelling settled with the double o spelling to capture the long vowel sound, and the meaning narrowed toward the idea of a fast downward rush, especially the dive of a bird of prey. By the time of Shakespeare it had become a vivid word for a sudden descent, and his phrase about one fell swoop, describing a hawk seizing chickens, fixed the noun in everyday English. The link to sweep is the handy memory cue: a swoop is a downward sweep, and both share that low, gliding feel.

How the word is built

• swoop (from Old English swapan: to sweep, drive, rush)