Wipe, n.
1. Act of rubbing, esp. in order to clean.
2. A blow; a stroke; a hit; a swipe. [Low]
3. A gibe; a jeer; a severe sarcasm. Swift.
4. A handkerchief. [Thieves' Cant or Slang]
1 more senses
5. Stain; brand. [Obs.] "Slavish wipe." Shak.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Wipe, n.
(Zoöl.)
The lapwing. [Prov. Eng.]
Wipe, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wiped; p. pr. & vb. n. Wiping.]
1. To rub with something soft for cleaning; to clean or dry by rubbing; as, to wipe the hands or face with a towel. Let me wipe thy face. Shak. I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. 2 Kings xxi. 13.
2. To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; -- usually followed by away, off or out. Also used figuratively. "To wipe out our ingratitude." Shak. Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon. Milton.
3. To cheat; to defraud; to trick; -- usually followed by out. [Obs.] Spenser. If they by coveyne [covin] or gile be wiped beside their goods. Robynson (More's Utopia) To wipe a joint (Plumbing), to make a joint, as between pieces of lead pipe, by surrounding the junction with a mass of solder, applied in a plastic condition by means of a rag with which the solder is shaped by rubbing. -- To wipe the nose of, to cheat. [Old Slang]
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for wipe; he lists it under cleanse.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.