sweep
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: swēp
ipa: /swiːp/
ipa: /swip/
rhymes: -iːp
Forms: form: sweeps
Etymology: From Middle English swepen, from Proto-West Germanic *swaipijan (unattested in Old English), from Proto-Germanic *swaipijaną. Cognate with Early Modern West Frisian swiepe (“whip, cleanse, sweep”), from Old Frisian swēpa, suepa (“sweep”). More distantly related to Old Norse sveipa (whence Swedish svepa). See also swoop.
Senses: examples: text: Give the front steps a quick sweep to get rid of those fallen leaves.
glosses: A single action of sweeping.
glosses: The person who steers a dragon boat.
glosses: A person who stands at the stern of a surf boat, steering with a steering oar and commanding the crew.
examples: text: He was, perhaps, the English railwayman's conception of the French mécanicien - short and broad, black as a sweep even before we left Calais (but no blacker than I was on arrival at Paris) and wearing goggles and his uniform cap back to front.
ref: 1961 February, Balmore [pseudonym], “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives - Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 112:
glosses: A chimney sweep.
glosses: A methodical search, typically for bugs (electronic listening devices).
examples: text: Bradman attempted a sweep, but in fact top edged the ball to the wicket keeper
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A batsman's shot, played from a kneeling position with a swinging horizontal bat.
examples: text: Jim will win fifty dollars in the office sweep if Japan wins the World Cup.
glosses: A lottery, usually on the results of a sporting event, where players win if their randomly chosen team wins.
glosses: A flow of water parallel to shore caused by wave action at an ocean beach or at a point or headland.
examples: text: The MiG-17's inner wing has 45 degrees of sweep.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The degree to which an aircraft's wings are angled backwards (or, occasionally, forwards) from their attachments to the fuselage.
topics: government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: A throw or takedown that primarily uses the legs to attack an opponent's legs.
examples: text: the sweep of an epidemic disease
glosses: Violent and general destruction.
topics: arts
crafts
engineering
hobbies
lifestyle
metallurgy
metalworking
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A movable template for making moulds, in loam moulding.
topics: card-games
games
glosses: In the game casino, the act of capturing all face-up cards from the table.
examples: text: the sweep of a door; the sweep of the eye
glosses: The compass of any turning body or of any motion.
examples: text: the road which makes a small sweep
ref: 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
glosses: Direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, etc. away from a rectilinear line.
examples: text: I intend to muffle the sweeps and row the schooner up to the head of the creek there, from which point we can command the pile of sandal-wood with our gun.
ref: 1857 December, R[obert]. M[ichael]. Ballantyne, The Coral Island, page 258:
glosses: A large oar used in small vessels, partly to propel them and partly to steer them.
examples: text: I am primarily a sweep rower.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
rowing
sports
glosses: A rowing style in which each rower rows with oar on either the port or starboard side.
qualifier: refining
glosses: The almond furnace.
glosses: A long pole, or piece of timber, moved on a horizontal fulcrum fixed to a tall post and used to raise and lower a bucket in a well for drawing water.
glosses: Any of the blades of a windmill.
glosses: The sweepings of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc.
examples: text: Octopus clambered about from hole to hole and startled sweep blurred away as we passed.
ref: 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador, published 2014, page 28:
glosses: Any of several sea chubs in the family Kyphosidae (subfamily Scorpidinae).
examples: text: The Himalaya guards the southern rim of the plateau in one continuous sweep of 2250 km, each end marked by a massive mountain, Nanga Parbat on the Indus in the west and Namjagbarwa at the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo in the east.
ref: 1998, George B. Schaller, Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 21:
glosses: An expanse or a swath, a strip of land.
examples: text: A proposal to redistribute the diaries used in sweeps to provide a 4-week "buyer report" earlier than the normal November sweep followed by three quarterly reports was not welcomed […]
ref: 1988, Hugh Malcolm Beville, Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable, page 230:
topics: broadcasting
media
television
glosses: singular of sweeps (“viewership ratings”)
Derived terms: chimney sweep
clean sweep
downsweep
foot sweep
insweep
jet sweep
leg sweep
mark and sweep
May Day sweep
May-day sweep
muzzle sweep
outsweep
ping sweep
podium sweep
reverse sweep
sea sweep
slog-sweep
sweep line
sweep net
sweep saw
sweepstake
sweep-washer
upsweep
variable sweep