Definition of "sweep"

sweep

/swiːp/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Isaiah 14:23
2. (intransitive) To move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.
  Quotations
  [H]as the course of the argument so accustomed you to agreeing that you were swept by it into a ready assent?
  2005, Lesley Brown, Sophist, translation of original by Plato, page 236d
3. (transitive) To search (a place) methodically.
4. (intransitive, figuratively) To travel quickly.
  Quotations
  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.
  1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 9
  Everton took that disputed lead in a moment that caused anger to sweep around the Emirates.
  2011 February 1, Phil McNulty, “Arsenal 2-1 Everton”, in BBC
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.
11. (transitive) To remove something abruptly and thoroughly.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6
12. To brush against or over; to rub lightly along.
  Quotations
  Their long descending train, / With rubies edg'd and sapphires, swept the plain.
  1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
  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.
  1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins
13. To carry with a long, swinging, or dragging motion; hence, to carry in a stately or proud fashion.
  Quotations
  And like a peacock sweep along his tail.
  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, [Act III, scene iii]
14. To strike with a long stroke.
  Quotations
  Deſcend ye nine! deſcend and ſing; / The breathing inſtruments inſpire, / VVake into voice each ſilent ſtring, / And ſvveep the ſounding lyre!
  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, […], canto I, page 371
15. (rowing) To row with one oar to either the port or starboard side.
16. (nautical) To draw or drag something over.
17. To pass over, or traverse, with the eye or with an instrument of observation.
18. (US, regional, including Ohio and Indiana) To vacuum a carpet or rug.
noun
plural sweeps
1. A single action of sweeping.
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1961 February, Balmore [pseudonym], “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives - Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 112
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.
7. A lottery, usually on the results of a sporting event, where players win if their randomly chosen team wins.
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.
10. (martial arts) A throw or takedown that primarily uses the legs to attack an opponent's legs.
11. Violent and general destruction.
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.
15. Direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, etc. away from a rectilinear line.
  Quotations
  the road which makes a small sweep
  1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […]
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.
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).
  Quotations
  Octopus clambered about from hole to hole and startled sweep blurred away as we passed.
  1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador, published 2014, page 28
23. An expanse or a swath, a strip of land.
  Quotations
  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.
  1998, George B. Schaller, Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe‎, University of Chicago Press, page 21