sweep

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”). See also swoop.

Pronunciation

• enPR: swēp, IPA^(key): /swiːp/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -iːp

Verb

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

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 14:23:

     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, Sophist, translation of original by Plato, page 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.
   • 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 9:

     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.

   • 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. (military) To clear (a body of water or part thereof) of mines.

    The channel was swept twice before the battlefleet proceeded through it.

11. (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.

12. To brush against or over; to rub lightly along.
    • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

      Their long descending train, / With rubies edg'd 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.

13. To carry with a long, swinging, or dragging motion; hence, to carry in a stately or proud fashion.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

      And like a peacock sweep along his tail.

14. To strike with a long stroke.
    • 1687 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Ode for Musick on St. Cecilia’s Day”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], →OCLC, canto I, page 371:

      Deſcend ye nine! deſcend and ſing; / The breathing inſtruments inſpire, / VVake into voice each ſilent ſtring, / And ſvveep the ſounding lyre!

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

    to sweep the bottom of a river with a net

17. To pass over, or traverse, with the eye or with an instrument of observation.

    to sweep the heavens with a telescope

    • 2008–2021, qntm, “We Need To Talk About Fifty-Five”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 13:

      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.

18. (Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana) To vacuum a carpet or rug.

Noun

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.
   • 1961 February, Balmore [pseudonym], “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives - Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 112:

     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. (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. (aviation) The degree to which an aircraft's wings are angled backwards (or, occasionally, forwards) from their attachments to the fuselage.

   The MiG-17's inner wing has 45 degrees of sweep.

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

    the sweep of an epidemic disease

12. (metalworking) A movable template for making moulds, in loam moulding.
13. (card games) 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.

    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.
    • 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:

      the road which makes a small sweep

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

    I am primarily a sweep rower.

18. (refining, obsolete) The almond furnace.
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. (in the plural) The sweepings of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc.
22. Any of several sea chubs in the family Kyphosidae (subfamily Scorpidinae).
    • 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador, published 2014, page 28:

      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.
    • 1998, George B. Schaller, Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe‎, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 21:

      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.

References

• “sweep”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “sweep”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• weeps

Etymology

From Dutch zweep, from Middle Dutch swepe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /svɪə̯p/

Noun

sweep (plural swepe, diminutive swepie)

1. A whip.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English sweep.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈswip/

Noun

sweep m (plural sweeps)

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