sweep
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: aeronautics
aerospace
arts
aviation
ball-games
business
card-games
crafts
cricket
curling
engineering
games
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
metallurgy
metalworking
military
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
politics
rowing
sports
transport
war
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.
Inflected forms:
form: sweeps
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: sweeping
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: swept
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: swept
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sweeps
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to sweep a floor, the street, or a chimney
I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.
gloss: To move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The wind sweeps across the plain.
The offended countess swept out of the ballroom.
[H]as the course of the argument so accustomed you to agreeing that you were swept by it into a ready assent?
gloss: To search (a place) methodically.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To travel quickly.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
intransitive
examples: Drifting thus, we made fast time down the bank through Cove Bay, and at 72 m.p.h. came sweeping round the curve past Girdleness light house, and so to the first sight of Aberdeen itself.
Everton took that disputed lead in a moment that caused anger to sweep around the Emirates.
gloss: To play a sweep shot.
pos: verb
gloss: To brush the ice in front of a moving stone, causing it to travel farther and to curl less.
pos: verb
gloss: To move something in a long sweeping motion, as a broom.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
transitive
gloss: To win (a series) without drawing or losing any of the games in that series.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To defeat (a team) in a series without drawing or losing any of the games in that series.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To clear (a body of water or part thereof) of mines.
pos: verb
examples: The channel was swept twice before the battlefleet proceeded through it.
gloss: To remove something abruptly and thoroughly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: She swept the peelings off the table onto the floor.
The wind sweeps the snow from the hills.
The flooded river swept away the wooden dam.
In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
gloss: To brush against or over; to rub lightly along.
pos: verb
examples: Their long descending train, / With rubies edg'd and sapphires, swept the plain.
Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
gloss: To carry with a long, swinging, or dragging motion; hence, to carry in a stately or proud fashion.
pos: verb
examples: And like a peacock sweep along his tail.
gloss: To strike with a long stroke.
pos: verb
examples: Deſcend ye nine! deſcend and ſing; / The breathing inſtruments inſpire, / VVake into voice each ſilent ſtring, / And ſvveep the ſounding lyre!
gloss: To row with one oar to either the port or starboard side.
pos: verb
gloss: To draw or drag something over.
pos: verb
examples: to sweep the bottom of a river with a net
gloss: To pass over, or traverse, with the eye or with an instrument of observation.
pos: verb
examples: to sweep the heavens with a telescope
O5-8 does an impressive job of controlling himself, keeping his attention focused on Marion. Clay doesn't fare so well, and quickly sweeps the whole room, even checking behind his back. Making an ass of himself, essentially. He finds nothing. He looks baffled.
gloss: To vacuum a carpet or rug.
pos: verb
tags: Pennsylvania
Western
gloss: A single action of sweeping.
pos: noun
examples: Give the front steps a quick sweep to get rid of those fallen leaves.
gloss: The person who steers a dragon boat.
pos: noun
gloss: A person who stands at the stern of a surf boat, steering with a steering oar and commanding the crew.
pos: noun
gloss: A chimney sweep.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A methodical search, typically for bugs (electronic listening devices).
pos: noun
gloss: A batsman's shot, played from a kneeling position with a swinging horizontal bat.
pos: noun
examples: Bradman attempted a sweep, but in fact top edged the ball to the wicket keeper
gloss: A lottery, usually on the results of a sporting event, where players win if their randomly chosen team wins.
pos: noun
examples: Jim will win fifty dollars in the office sweep if Japan wins the World Cup.
gloss: A flow of water parallel to shore caused by wave action at an ocean beach or at a point or headland.
pos: noun
gloss: The degree to which an aircraft's wings are angled backwards (or, occasionally, forwards) from their attachments to the fuselage.
pos: noun
examples: The MiG-17's inner wing has 45 degrees of sweep.
gloss: A throw or takedown that primarily uses the legs to attack an opponent's legs.
pos: noun
gloss: Violent and general destruction.
pos: noun
examples: the sweep of an epidemic disease
gloss: A movable template for making moulds, in loam moulding.
pos: noun
gloss: In the game casino, the act of capturing all face-up cards from the table.
pos: noun
gloss: The compass of any turning body or of any motion.
pos: noun
examples: the sweep of a door; the sweep of the eye
gloss: Direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, etc. away from a rectilinear line.
pos: noun
examples: the road which makes a small sweep
gloss: A large oar used in small vessels, partly to propel them and partly to steer them.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A rowing style in which each rower rows with oar on either the port or starboard side.
pos: noun
tags: attributive
examples: I am primarily a sweep rower.
gloss: The almond furnace.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
gloss: Any of the blades of a windmill.
pos: noun
gloss: The sweepings of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc.
pos: noun
tags: in-plural
gloss: Any of several sea chubs in the family Kyphosidae (subfamily Scorpidinae).
pos: noun
examples: Octopus clambered about from hole to hole and startled sweep blurred away as we passed.
gloss: An expanse or a swath, a strip of land.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: The act of police removing a homeless encampment from a public space.
pos: noun
tags: US
possibly
regional
examples: “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.
Derived words: asweep
bisweptual
ensweep
new brooms sweep clean
oversweep
resweep
sweepable
sweepage
sweep along
sweep aside
sweep away
sweepback
sweepboat
sweep-chimney
sweeper
sweep in
sweep out
sweep someone off their feet
sweep something under the carpet
sweep something under the rug
sweep the board
sweep the deck
sweep the floor with someone
sweep up
sweepy
downsweep
upsweep
chimney sweep
clean sweep
footsweep
foot sweep
insweep
jet sweep
leg sweep
mark and sweep
May-day sweep
May Day sweep
multisweep
muzzle sweep
outsweep
ping sweep
podium sweep
portsweep
reverse sweep
sea sweep
slog-sweep
sweepdom
sweeplike
sweep line
sweep net
sweep picking
sweep saw
sweepstake
sweepwasher
sweep-washer
variable sweep
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: voittaa puhtaasti