sweep

From Old English swāpan, from Proto-Germanic *swaipaną. Cognate with Early Modern West Frisian swiepe (“whip, cleanse, sweep”), from Old Frisian swēpa, suepa (“sweep”). See also swoop.

• enPR: swēp, IPA^(key): /swiːp/

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• Rhymes: -iːp

a man sweeping (1)

sweep (third-person singular simple present sweeps, present participle sweeping, simple past and past participle swept)

1. (transitive) to clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush

   to sweep a floor, the street, or a chimney

   • Bible, Isaiah xiv. 23

     I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.

2. (intransitive) to move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke

   The wind sweeps across the plain.

   The offended countess swept out of the ballroom.

   • 2005, Lesley Brown (translator), Sophist by Plato, 236d:

     [H]as the course of the argument so accustomed you to agreeing that you were swept by it into a ready assent?

3. (transitive) to search (a place) methodically
4. (intransitive, figuratively) to travel quickly
   • 2011 February 1, Phil McNulty, “Arsenal 2-1 Everton”, in BBC:

     Everton took that disputed lead in a moment that caused anger to sweep around the Emirates.

5. (cricket) to play a sweep shot
6. (curling) to brush the ice in front of a moving stone, causing it to travel farther and to curl less
7. (transitive, ergative) to move something in a long sweeping motion, as a broom
8. (sports, transitive) to win (a series) without drawing or losing any of the games in that series
9. (sports, transitive) to defeat (a team) in a series without drawing or losing any of the games in that series
10. (transitive) to remove something abruptly and thoroughly

    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.

    • 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:

      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.

11. to brush against or over; to rub lightly along
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

    Their long descending train, / With rubies edged and sapphires, swept the plain.

    • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

      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.

12. to carry with a long, swinging, or dragging motion; hence, to carry in a stately or proud fashion
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

      And like a peacock sweep along his tail.

13. to strike with a long stroke
    • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

      Wake into voice each silent string, / And sweep the sounding lyre.

14. (rowing) To row with one oar to either the port or starboard side.
15. (nautical) to draw or drag something over

    to sweep the bottom of a river with a net

16. to pass over, or traverse, with the eye or with an instrument of observation

    to sweep the heavens with a telescope

sweep (plural sweeps)

1. a single action of sweeping

   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
5. a methodical search, typically for bugs (electronic listening devices)
6. (cricket) a batsman's shot, played from a kneeling position with a swinging horizontal bat

   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

   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. (martial arts) a throw or takedown that primarily uses the legs to attack an opponent's legs
10. violent and general destruction

    the sweep of an epidemic disease

11. (metalworking) a movable templet for making moulds, in loam moulding
12. (card games) in the game casino, the act of capturing all face-up cards from the table
13. the compass of any turning body or of any motion

    the sweep of a door; the sweep of the eye

14. direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, etc. away from a rectilinear line
    • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott

      the road which makes a small sweep

15. a large oar used in small vessels, partly to propel them and partly to steer them
16. (rowing) A rowing style in which each rower rows with oar on either the port or starboard side.

    I am primarily a sweep rower.

17. (refining, obsolete) the almond furnace
18. 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
19. any of the blades of a windmill
20. (in the plural) the sweepings of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc.
21. any of several sea chubs in the kyphosid subfamily Scorpidinae
    • 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador 2014, p. 28:

      Octopus clambered about from hole to hole and startled sweep blurred away as we passed.

22. an expanse or a swath, a strip of land

• sweep in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• weeps

Borrowed from English sweep.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈswip/

sweep m (plural sweeps)

1. (electric guitar) sweep (arpeggio played with a single movement of the picking hand)