the.com/swipe

means To strike or steal with a quick, sweeping motion — or, in modern use, to drag a finger across a screen to approve, reject, or scroll.

from Swipe surfaces in English around the early 19th century as a dialect variant of 'sweep,' carrying the sense of a broad, hard stroke — like a swing of a bat or arm. By the early 20th century it had picked up slang duty meaning 'to steal,' the kind of quick, grabbing motion a thief makes. Its journey into touchscreens is pure 21st-century repurposing: the same swift, decisive arm-motion shrunk down to a thumb's arc, now used to judge another person's face in half a second.