Wipe off and wipe up
Hello,
How would you differentiate between: "There's mud on the windshield. Wipe it up/off, please" and "She wiped up the oil from the counter/She wiped the oil off the counter? I may be wrong, but doesn't "up" suggest more effort (elbow grease, etc) than "off"? Wiping something off should probably be quite easy. Wiping something off might involve more work. I don't know if this makes any sense.
Thank you.
Top answer
Where there is a difference, I think of "wipe up" more as removing something from a horizontal surface. For a non-horizontal surface I would be more inclined to use "wipe off".
- Where there is a difference, I think of "wipe up" more as removing something from a horizontal surface.
- For a non-horizontal surface I would be more inclined to use "wipe off".
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Where there is a difference, I think of "wipe up" more as removing something from a horizontal surface. For a non-horizontal surface I would be more inclined to use "wipe off".
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