What does asswipe mean?
Asswipe is a crude English insult used to describe someone regarded as stupid, selfish, or thoroughly unpleasant. Formed from the noun 'ass' combined with 'wipe', it belongs to a large family of scatological insults in modern colloquial English, alongside words like 'asshole' and similar compound slurs. The word carries strong vulgar force: it is offensive rather than merely rude, so its use marks the speaker as either angry, deliberately provocative, or speaking in very casual company. Although it can technically refer to toilet paper in some American slang usage, this literal sense has largely been eclipsed by the figurative one, and today almost any hearer will understand 'asswipe' as a personal attack. It appears mostly in spoken conversation, online arguments, films, and fiction where coarse dialogue is expected, and it should be avoided in formal writing. Its emotional register ranges from genuine hostility to playful banter between close friends, depending heavily on tone and relationship.
A vulgar term for a contemptible, stupid, or irritating person.
"Only a complete asswipe would park across two disabled spaces."
Strongly offensive; restricted to informal contexts.
Vulgar slang for toilet paper.
"We ran out of asswipe halfway through the camping trip."
Much less common than the insulting sense; chiefly American and jocular.
Standard plural formation applies.
"The comment section was full of anonymous asswipes."
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of asswipe
Asswipe is a twentieth-century American coinage formed by compounding 'ass', a vulgar term for the buttocks dating back to Middle English, with 'wipe'. It follows the same productive pattern that produced related insults combining body-part nouns with everyday objects, and it emerged as part of the broader flowering of scatological slang in twentieth-century American English. No cognates exist in other languages, since the word is a native English compound built entirely from Germanic roots.
How asswipe is actually used
Highly vulgar and offensive; appropriate only in informal speech among people who tolerate profanity. Avoid entirely in professional, academic, or polite contexts. The insulting sense is dominant; the literal sense of 'toilet paper' is rarer and chiefly American.
Easily confused with asswipe
The figurative insult meaning 'a despicable person' is far more common than the literal slang sense referring to toilet paper.