sweep

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a movement in an arc

   A sweep of my arm was all it took to destroy a 1000 year old relic.

2. 2
   noun

   a wide scope

   the sweep of the plains

3. 3
   verb

   clean by sweeping

   Please sweep the floor

4. 4
   verb

   To clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush.

   to sweep a floor, the street, or a chimney

5. 5
   verb

   To move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.

   The wind sweeps across the plain.

6. 6
   verb

   To travel quickly.

   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.

7. 7
   verb

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

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

8. 8
   verb

   To remove something abruptly and thoroughly.

   She swept the peelings off the table onto the floor.

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”). More distantly related to Old Norse sveipa (whence Swedish svepa). See also swoop.