SWEEP • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Sweep

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Sweep

noun

1.

A wide scope. Synonym: expanse.

2.

Someone who cleans soot from chimneys. Synonyms: chimneysweep, chimneysweeper.

3.

Winning all or all but one of the tricks in bridge. Synonym: slam.

4.

A long oar used in an open boat. Synonym: sweep oar.

5.

(American football) an attempt to advance the ball by running around the end of the line. Synonym: end run.

6.

A movement in an arc.

verb

(past & past part. swept; pres. part. sweeping)

1.

Sweep across or over. Synonym: brush. "A gasp swept cross the audience"

2.

Move with sweeping, effortless, gliding motions. Synonym: sail. "Shreds of paper sailed through the air" , "The searchlights swept across the sky"

3.

Sweep with a broom or as if with a broom. Synonym: broom. "Sweep under the bed"

4.

Force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action. Synonyms: drag, drag in, embroil, sweep up, tangle. "Don't drag me into this business"

5.

To cover or extend over an area or time period. Synonyms: cross, span, traverse. "The parking lot spans 3 acres" , "The novel spans three centuries"

6.

Clean by sweeping.

7.

Win an overwhelming victory in or on.

8.

Cover the entire range of.

9.

Make a big sweeping gesture or movement. Synonyms: swing, swing out.

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Etymology of 'Sweep'

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sweep under the rug

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Sweep" Quotes from Famous Books

... his tobacco pipe and made the three doomed ones sit with him in the path to smoke the peace-whiff all around, we picked out each his man and smote to slay. The scythe-like sweep of Jennifer's mighty claymore left the five-feathered chieftain the shorter by a head in the same pulse-beat that the Ferara scanted a second of the breath to yell with; though now I recall it, the gurgling death-cry of the poor wretch with the steel in ...

— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde

... taxation on the other; thus placing the two great sections of the country in direct conflict in reference to its fiscal action, and thereby letting in that flood of political corruption which threatens to sweep away our ...

— Remarks of Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina on the bill to prevent the interference of certain federal officers in elections: delivered in the Senate of the United States February 22, 1839 • John C. Calhoun

... Against the grey, ghostly light of the window he could see Christine bowed over her typewriter. She was so still that she frightened him. All the terrors of night which lay in wait for him ever since his fathers dead hand had touched his door and opened it, rushed down upon him with a sweep of black, smothering wings. He called out "Christine! Christine!" in a choked voice, and she moved at once, and he saw her ...

— The Dark House • I. A. R. Wylie

... worse when Chance is away. Look at those bits of paper littering the place,' he went on fussily. 'Now I know that those men have been told thousands of times not to let things fly about like that. But it saves them trouble when they clean a room to sweep everything out of doors and then leave it ...

— Peter and Jane - or The Missing Heir • S. (Sarah) Macnaughtan

... himself, but took his sabre in both hands and rushed furiously on his antagonist, resolved to kill him, if he had to lose his own life. Philippe received a sabre-cut which slashed open his forehead and a part of his face, but he cleft Max's head obliquely by the terrible sweep of a "moulinet," made to break the force of the annihilating stroke Max aimed at him. These two savage blows ended the combat, at the ninth minute. Fario came down to gloat over the sight of his enemy in the convulsions of death; for the muscles of a man of Maxence Gilet's vigor quiver horribly. ...

— The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

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