swoop

verb

/swuːp/

Verb Forms

present simple I / you / we / they swoop	/swuːp/ /swuːp/
he / she / it swoops	/swuːps/ /swuːps/
past simple swooped	/swuːpt/ /swuːpt/
past participle swooped	/swuːpt/ /swuːpt/
-ing form swooping	/ˈswuːpɪŋ/ /ˈswuːpɪŋ/

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[intransitive] (+ adv./prep.) (of a bird or plane) to fly quickly and suddenly downwards, especially in order to attack somebody/something synonym dive
- The aircraft swooped down over the buildings.
- A hawk swooped low over the field.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
adverb
- low
- suddenly
- down
- …
preposition
- into
- on
- over
- …
See full entry
[intransitive] swoop (on somebody/something) (especially of police or soldiers) to visit or attack somebody/something suddenly and without warning
- Officers swooped on the vehicles as they left the ferry.
- Customs officers swooped on several houses last night looking for drugs.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
adverb
- low
- suddenly
- down
- …
preposition
- into
- on
- over
- …
See full entry

Word Originmid 16th cent. (in the sense ‘sweep along in a stately manner’): perhaps a dialect variant of Old English swāpan, of Germanic origin. The early sense of the noun was ‘a blow, stroke’.

swoop

noun

/swuːp/

Idioms

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an act of moving suddenly and quickly downwards through the air, as a bird does synonym dive
swoop (on something/somebody) an act of arriving somewhere or attacking something/somebody in a way that is sudden and unexpected synonym raid
- Large quantities of drugs were found during a police swoop on the star's New York home.

Idioms

at/in one fell swoop

all at the same time; in a single action, especially a sudden or violent one
- If the new law is passed, it will remove press freedom in one fell swoop.