In Film Editing, a Wipe is an "Optical Effect" that results in a gradual transition from one scene or image to another. The last few frames of the previous scene are slowly replaced by images from another shot or scene.  Very popular at MGM & Warner Bros in the 1930’s, they  gradually fell out of favor, but gained a sudden rebirth of popularity when George Lucas used them to great effect in the first Star Wars (’77).  There are countless variations to this old art form which used to be a time-consuming process involving an Optical Printer.