sweep
sweep (swēp)
transitive verb swept, sweep′·ing
- to clear or clean (a surface, room, etc.) as by brushing with a broom
- to remove or clear away (dirt, debris, etc.) as with a broom or brushing movement
- to clear (a space, path, etc.) with or as with a broom
- to strip, clear, carry away, remove, or destroy with a forceful movement or movements
- to move or carry along with a sweeping movement to sweep one's hand through one's hair
- to touch or brush in moving across hands sweeping the keyboard
- to pass swiftly over or across; traverse, as in search searchlights sweeping the sky
- to direct (the eyes, a glance, etc.) over something swiftly
- to drag (a river, pond, etc.) with a net, grapple, etc.
- to clear (the sea, etc.) with a mine sweeper
- to direct gunfire along; rake
- to win all the games or events of (a series, set, or match)
- to win overwhelmingly to sweep an election
Etymology: ME swepen, akin to (or ? altered <) OE swapan: see swoop
intransitive verb
- to clean a surface, room, etc. with or as with a broom or the like
- to move, pass, or progress steadily or smoothly, esp. with speed, force, or gracefulness planes sweeping across the sky, music sweeping to a climax
- to trail, as skirts or the train of a gown
- to reach or extend in a long, graceful curve or line a road sweeping up the hill
noun
- the act of sweeping, as with a broom
- a continuous sweeping or driving movement the sweep of a scythe
- a stroke or blow resulting from this
- a trailing, as of skirts
- range or scope within the sweep of their guns
- extent or range; stretch; reach a long sweep of meadow
- a line, contour, curve, etc. that gives an impression of flow or movement
- a person whose work is sweeping; specif., chimney sweep
- things swept up; sweepings
- the taking or winning of all; complete victory or success, as in a series of contests
- in casino, the taking of all the cards on the board, by pairing or combining
- in whist, the winning of all the tricks in one deal
- a long oar
- a long pole mounted on a pivot, with a bucket at one end, used for raising water, as from a well
- ☆ a blade or plow-point of various widths, used in the shallow cultivation of row crops
- a sail of a windmill
- sweepstakes
- Electronics one transit of an electron beam across the screen of a cathode-ray tube, moving either horizontally from line to line, as in a picture tube, or circularly around a center point, as in a radarscope
- Football a play in which the ball carrier runs a relatively long way toward a sideline before turning toward the line of scrimmage
- Radio, TV, Informal
- a national rating survey of local stations for determining advertising rates
- the period during which the survey is conducted
sweep
n.
Object
- globe: Have you caught up with the new craze that is sweeping the globe?
- nation: Su Doku The PC version of the puzzle craze sweeping the nation.
- wing: A possible extension of the method to the case of a flap on a swept wing is also included.
- board: For the past decade at least, the market has swept the board.
Preposition: over
- weir: I was worried that we might get swept over the weirs!
Adjective modifier
- clean: A clean sweep for the defense of the 70's!
- broad: Beautifully situated close to the broad sweep of Whitley Bay's golden sands... .
- grand: It invokes a vision of a grand sweep of time, a quest for meaning in the course of history.
- chronological: Here, objects are grouped in a broad chronological sweep to suggest the evolution of silversmithing and metalwork between 1970 and 2005.
Modifies a noun
- oar: In an opener to the regatta season, the LRGSBC senior sweep oar squad won all of their events.
- rowing: A coxswain is optional in most conditions, but is essential in eight-man sweep rowing.
Followed by an intransitive particle
- aside: Rather than deal with the problem, it was swept aside with a view to deal with it later.
- along: They do not just get swept along by the current ( see The Tale of Three Project Managers ).
Followed by a transitive particle
- aside: Ministers have swept aside concepts of clinical priority in favor of their own insatiable PR agenda.
- away: They did not sweep away the stocks of liquor.
Preposition: in
- torrent: Fair play on land reform swept away in a torrent of prejudice.
Preposition: under
- carpet: There's profit in selling childcare, and so the very big disadvantages about it are swept under the carpet.
- rug: He said: The whole problem in Europe has been swept under the rug.
Noun used with modifier
Animadverti jam ante aliquot annos quam multa, ineunte aetate, falsa pro veris admiserim, et quam dubia sint quaecunque istis postea superextruxi, ac proinde funditus omnia semel in vita esse evertenda, atque a primis fundamentis denno inchoandum, si quid aliquando firmum et mansurum cupiam in scientiis stabilire. Some years ago now I observed the multitude of errorsthat I had accepted as true inmy earliest years, and the dubiousness of the wholesuperstructure I had since then reared on them; and the consequent need of making a clean sweep foronce in my life, and beginning againfrom the very foundations, if Iwould establish somesecure and lasting result in science.
Browse dictionary entries near sweep
- sweeny
- Swedish turnip
- Swedish massage
- Swedish ivy
- Swedish
- Swedenborgian
- Swedenborg
- Sweden
- Swede
- Swed
- sweep hand
- sweep under the rug
- sweepback
- sweeper
- sweeping
- sweepings
- sweepstakes
- sweet
- sweet alyssum
- sweet-and-sour
