swab down
To clean or wash some surface with an absorbent cleaning implement. A noun or pronoun can be used between "swab" and "down." He has been relegated to swabbing down the deck for the foreseeable future as punishment for his actions. I swabbed her brow down with a cool, wet sponge.
swab something down
to wash or scrub something, such as the deck of a ship. The sailors were told to swab the deck down each day. Swab down the deck!
swab down
v. To clean a surface with a swab: The sailor swabbed down the deck. If the table is dirty, swab it down with lots of soap.