Word: sweep Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /swiːp/, /swip/ 1. A single action of sweeping. Example: Give the front steps a quick sweep to get rid of those fallen leaves. 2. The person who steers a dragon boat. 3. A person who stands at the stern of a surf boat, steering with a steering oar and commanding the crew. 4. A chimney sweep. Example: 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. 5. A methodical search, typically for bugs (electronic listening devices). 6. A batsman's shot, played from a kneeling position with a swinging horizontal bat. Example: Bradman attempted a sweep, but in fact top edged the ball to the wicket keeper 7. A lottery, usually on the results of a sporting event, where players win if their randomly chosen team wins. Example: Jim will win fifty dollars in the office sweep if Japan wins the World Cup. 8. A flow of water parallel to shore caused by wave action at an ocean beach or at a point or headland. 9. The degree to which an aircraft's wings are angled backwards (or, occasionally, forwards) from their attachments to the fuselage. Example: The MiG-17's inner wing has 45 degrees of sweep. 10. A throw or takedown that primarily uses the legs to attack an opponent's legs. 11. Violent and general destruction. Example: the sweep of an epidemic disease 12. A movable template for making moulds, in loam moulding. 13. In the game casino, the act of capturing all face-up cards from the table. 14. The compass of any turning body or of any motion. Example: the sweep of a door; the sweep of the eye 15. Direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, etc. away from a rectilinear line. Example: the road which makes a small sweep 16. A large oar used in small vessels, partly to propel them and partly to steer them. Example: 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. 17. A rowing style in which each rower rows with oar on either the port or starboard side. Labels: attributive Example: I am primarily a sweep rower. 18. The almond furnace. Labels: obsolete 19. 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. 20. Any of the blades of a windmill. 21. The sweepings of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc. Labels: in-plural 22. Any of several sea chubs in the family Kyphosidae (subfamily Scorpidinae). Example: Octopus clambered about from hole to hole and startled sweep blurred away as we passed. 23. An expanse or a swath, a strip of land. Example: 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. 24. singular of sweeps (“viewership ratings”) Labels: US, form-of, singular Example: 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 […] 25. The act of police removing a homeless encampment from a public space. Labels: US, possibly, regional Example: “There’s no new version of sweeps or a better version of sweeps,” said Marcus Moore, who was street homeless prior to the pandemic and is now an organizer with Safety Net Activists.