wipe
n. countablen. a total failure or a situation where everything is lost or destroyed. In gaming, it means a whole team dies at the same time.
n. an instance of total destruction or failure, specifically within a gaming context where an entire party or team is defeated simultaneously. Often used to describe a catastrophic loss of progress or data.
One mistake by the healer caused a total wipe.
The team was doing well until the boss used its ultimate ability, leading to a frustrating wipe just before the finish.
After hours of meticulous preparation, the unexpected server crash resulted in a data wipe that forced the developers to roll back the entire system to the previous day's backup.
From Middle English wipen, from Old English wīpian (“to wipe, rub, cleanse”), from Proto-West Germanic wīpōn (“to wipe”), from Proto-Indo-European weyp- (“to twist, wind around”). Cognate with German wippen (“to bob”), Swedish veva (“to turn, wind, crank”), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍀𐌰𐌽 (weipan, “to wreathe, crown”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”), Sanskrit वेपते (vépate, “to tremble”). More at swivel, swift.
Compare Swedish vipa, Danish vibe (“lapwing”).
From wipe out (verb) and wipeout (noun) by shortening.
Commonly used in gaming and computing contexts to describe the loss of a group or a set of data.