^W

See also: Appendix:Variations of "w"

Translingual

Symbol

^W

1. (computing) The ASCII control character end of transmission block in caret notation.

English

Etymology

From the visual representation of the terminal encoding of the keypress Ctrl-W, the "delete back to whitespace" command in GNU readline, which is commonly available in GNU shells and other command-line utilities.

Interjection

^W

1. (Internet slang, usually humorous) Delete that last word.

   Yeah, he's a real jerk^W civility-challenged fellow.

   Well, Mimi, you’re old enough that you should go to parties now, so this should be your last year to tickle feet^W^W trick-or-treat.

Usage notes

• This may be repeated to indicate the deletion of multiple words.

Related terms

• ^H