swoopverb/ˈswuːp/

• 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

  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.
• 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

  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

  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

  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.

swoopnoun/ˈswuːp/

• 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.
• 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

  entertainmentlifestylemusicA 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

  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.