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- Dictionarysweep/swiːp/
verb
- 1. clean (an area) by brushing away dirt or litter: "I've swept the floor" Similar brushcleanscrubwipemopdustscourscraperakebuffvacuumhooverinformal:do
- ▪ move or remove (dirt or litter) by brushing it away: "she swept the tea leaves into a dustpan" Similar removewash awayexpeldispose ofeliminateget rid ofbrushcleanclearwhisk
- ▪ move or push (someone or something) with great force: "I was swept along by the crowd" Similar carrypulldragdrive
- ▪ brush (hair) back from one's face or upwards: "long hair swept up into a high chignon"
- ▪ hit (the ball) on the leg side by bringing the bat across the body from a half-kneeling position; hit a ball delivered by (a bowler) with such a stroke.
- 2. move swiftly and smoothly: "a large black car swept past the open windows" Similar glidesaildashchargerushstreakspeedflyzoomswoopwhizzhurtleinformal:tear
- ▪ cause to move swiftly and smoothly: "he swept his hand round the room"
- ▪ (of a person) move in a confident and stately manner: "she swept magnificently from the hall" Similar glidesailstridebreezestrollsallyswaggerdriftflitflounce
- ▪ affect (an area or place) swiftly and widely: "the rebellion had swept through all four of the country's provinces" Similar engulfoverwhelmfloodflow acrosssurge overracehurtlestreakspread like lightninginformal:tearwhip
- ▪ (of a geographical or natural feature) extend continuously in a particular direction, especially in a curve: "green forests swept down the hillsides"
- ▪ win all the games in (a series); take each of the winning or main places in (a contest or event): North American "we knew we had to sweep these three home games"
- 3. search (an area) for something: "the detective swept the room for hair and fingerprints" Similar searchprobecheckexplorehunt throughlook throughdelve ingo throughsift throughscourcombgo through with a fine-tooth combleave no stone unturned in
- ▪ examine (a place or object) for electronic listening devices: "the line is swept every fifteen minutes"
- ▪ cover (an entire area) with a gun: "they were trying to get the Lewis gun up behind some trees from where they would sweep the trench"
noun
- 1. an act of sweeping something with a brush: "I was giving the floor a quick sweep"
- ▪ short for chimney sweep
- 2. a long, swift curving movement: "a grandiose sweep of his hand" Similar gesturemovementmoveactionstrokewave
- ▪ the movement of a beam across the screen of a cathode ray tube.
- ▪ an attacking stroke in which the bat is brought across the body from a half-kneeling position to hit the ball to leg.
- 3. a procedure for inducing labour in a pregnant woman, in which a medical practitioner moves a finger around within the opening of the cervix to detach the amniotic membranes: "I went in for a sweep at 41 weeks"
- 4. a comprehensive search or survey of a place or area: "the police finished their sweep through the woods" Similar searchhuntexplorationprobeforagepursuitquest
- ▪ a survey of the ratings of television stations, carried out at regular intervals to determine advertising rates. North American
- 5. a long, typically curved stretch of road, river, or land: "we could see a wide sweep of country perhaps a hundred miles across" Similar expansetractstretchspaceplainextentvastnessvista
- ▪ a curved part of a drive in front of a building: "one fork of the drive continued on to the gravel sweep" Similar curvecurvaturebendarcarchbowturn
- ▪ the range or scope of something: "the whole sweep of the history of the USSR" Similar rangespanscopecompassreachspreadambitremitgamutorbitspectrumspherepurviewlimitextent
- 6. a sweepstake. informal
- 7. an instance of winning every event, award, or place in a contest: North American "a World Series sweep"
- 8. a long, heavy oar used to row a barge or other vessel: "a big, heavy sweep oar"
- 9. a sail of a windmill.
- 10. a long pole mounted as a lever for raising buckets from a well.
Word Origin Old Englishswāpan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to German schweifen ‘sweep in a curve’.
Scrabble Points: 10
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1W
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