| 释义 |
▪ I. sweep, n.|swiːp|
Forms: 6 swiepe, 6–7 sweepe, sweape, 7 swepe, 7–8 sweap, 7– sweep.
[Mainly f. sweep v. In senses 26, 28, app. a local variant of swape, q.v.]
I. The action of sweeping.
1. a. An act of sweeping or clearing up or (usually) away; a clearance: freq. a general sweep, (now) a clean sweep.
1552in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. xvi. 293 Thynkyng..this Hospital should haue made a generall swiepe of all poore and afflicted. 1712Swift Jrnl. to Stella 1 July, Here has been a great sweep of employments, and we expect still more removals. 1720― Run on Bankers Wks. 1755 IV. i. 22 The bold encroachers on the deep Gain by degrees huge tracts of land, Till Neptune with one gen'ral sweep Turns all again to barren strand. 1801Jefferson Writ. (ed. Ford) VIII. 64 In Connecticut alone a general sweep seems to be called for. 1848Clough Amours de Voy. i. 24 Would to Heaven the old Goths had made a cleaner sweep of it! 1868Milman St. Paul's 229 To make the last remorseless sweep of these riches. 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 144 A clean sweep had been made of all the beasts of burden in the neighbouring districts. 1889Jessopp Coming of Friars v. 236 There had been a clean sweep of the old incumbents from all the parishes for miles round.
b. An act of passing over an area in order to capture or destroy the occupants of it. Also spec. with reference to aircraft patrols, usu. offensive, but occas. also for reconnaissance purposes.
1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. 186 [They] had taken the lead, and hoped to have the first sweep of the hunting ground. 188919th Cent. Nov. 758 The hopes that the few remaining hundreds of the aborigines might be captured in one sweep. 1916Edin. Rev. July 172 The Grand Fleet had been engaged in carrying out one of those frequent ‘sweeps’ of the North Sea on which it has been employed for months in order to find the enemy. 1940Sun (Baltimore) 21 Feb. 1/6 In a daylight sweep over the Channel..British fighters set another Nazi E-boat afire. 1942Ann. Reg. 1941 52 About the middle of June the Royal Air Force began to make what were called ‘offensive sweeps’..seeking for enemy machines. 1959R. Collier City that wouldn't Die x. 167 Some fifty day-fighters and thirty night-fighters had taken part in this spectacular sweep. 1973‘R. Lewis’ Blood Money viii. 106 The helicopter seemed to have completed its sweeps... The shadows..had made spotting difficult.
c. at one or a sweep: with a single blow or stroke.
1834L. Ritchie Wand. Seine 96 Seventeen persons were drowned by the bar at one sweep. 1870Burton Hist. Scot. (1873) VI. lxxii. 256 The Tables resolved to take them at one sweep out of the hands of the Government. 1877Daily News 25 Oct. 5/4 If the best mines are liable to explosion, killing hundreds of men at a sweep.
d. Sport. Victory in all the games in a contest, tournament, etc., by one team or one competitor, or the winning of all the places in an event or competition. orig. and chiefly U.S.
1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 531/1 Sweep n., the act or an instance of one athlete or team winning a tournament without losing an individual game or contest. 1974State (Columbia, S. Carolina) 31 Mar. 5-d/4 The Gamecocks claimed all three places for a sweep of the 880 as John Brown rolled home with a time of 1:56.6 to best teammates Mike Sheley and Don Brown. 1977Hongkong Standard 12 Apr. 12/7 John Mayberry also drove in two runs to help Royals complete a season⁓opening sweep of the three-game series against the Tigers. 1979Arizona Daily Star 1 Apr. c1/1 James Frazier led an Arizona sweep in the high jump with a winning leap of 7–33/4, followed by Roger Curtis' 7–13/4.
2. The action of a person or animal moving along with a continuous motion, esp. with a magnificent or impressive air. Also with advs., as sweep-by, sweep-past.
1607Shakes. Timon i. ii. 137 What a sweepe of vanitie comes this way. 1775F. Burney Let. in Early Diary Nov., Nothing could be more noble than her entrance. She took a sweep from the full length of the stage. 1827Hone Every-day Bk. II. 57 Private carriages..draw up to the box door with a vigorous sweep. 1856A. Marsh Ev. Marston xviii. II. 93 The stillness being only broken by..the noiseless sweep by of the large white owl. 1895J. C. Snaith Mistr. D. Marvin vi, She cantered him [sc. a horse] gently to the far end of the yard to give him a good sweep for the spring.
3. a. The rapid or forcible and continuous movement of a body of water, wind, etc.
1708J. Philips Cyder ii. 83 A Torrent swell'd With wintry Tempests, that disdains all Mounds,..and involves Within its Sweep, Trees, Houses, Men. 1754Gray Pleasure 59 With resistless sweep They perish in the boundless deep. 1801Southey Thalaba viii. viii, The wind Swept through the moonless sky,..And in the pauses of its sweep They heard the heavy rain Beat on the monument above. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 76 The river pours Its guggling sounds in whirling sweep. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. i. vi, Brawny Danton is in the breach..amid the sweep of Tenth-of-August cannon. 1898Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.) Oct. 298 To anchor at some distance off-shore, exposed to the full sweep of the long rollers.
b. semi-concr. of a forcibly moving body of water.
1815Shelley Alastor 362 Suspended on the sweep of the smooth wave, The little boat was driven. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 55 He thrice had pluck'd a life From the dread sweep of the down-streaming seas. 1867A. J. Wilson Vashti xxvii, He might as well have attempted to catch.. in the hollow of his hand the steady sweep of Niagara.
4. An action, or a process in expression, thought, etc., figured as movement of this kind.
1662J. Graunt Bills of Mortality ii. 16 In Countries subject to great Epidemical sweeps man may live very long. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. (Bohn) 272 It was easy to excuse some inaccuracy in the final sounds if the general sweep of the verse was superior. 1840De Quincey Style i. Wks. (1860) 164 Whatever sweep is impressed by chance upon the motion of a period. 1842Tennyson Epic 14, I heard The parson taking wide and wider sweeps. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. vii. ix. (1872) II. 340 The first sweep of royal fury being past. 1872Morley Voltaire i. (1886) 1 As if the work had been wholly done..by the sweep of deep-lying, collective forces.
5. a. The action of driving or wielding a tool or weapon, swinging an arm, etc., so as to describe a circle or an arc.
1725Pope Odyss. vii. 419 Justly tim'd with equal sweep they row. 1831Scott Cast. Dang. iii, The sweep of a brown bill. 1849James Woodman iii, The woodman had pulled his axe from his belt, and with a full sweep of his arm struck a blow. 1850Tennyson In Mem. lxxxix, The sweep of scythe in morning dew. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. vi, The long steady sweep of the so-called paddle tried him. 1890R. Bridges Windmill ii, Its hurtling sails a mighty sweep Cut thro' the air.
b. Cricket. An attacking stroke made on the front foot, in which the batsman brings the bat across his body to hit the ball square or backward of square on the leg side.
1888R. H. Lyttelton in Steel & Lyttelton Cricket ii. 65 George Parr's leg hit..was the sweep to long leg off a shortish ball. 1920D. J. Knight in P. F. Warner Cricket 35 The sweep to leg is a very paying and useful stroke, although not elegant. It is effected by sinking almost down on the right knee and sweeping the ball right round in the direction of long leg. 1955Times 9 May 15/1 He had played some good drives and sweeps. 1970Times 19 Aug. 6/5 Most of the Yorkshire batsmen were obsessed by that ugly and risky stroke, the sweep.
6. a. The action of moving in a continuous curve or a more or less circular path or track: said, e.g., of the movements of an army or a fleet, the turn of a river's course; † formerly also of the rotation or revolution of a body; occas. a single revolution.
1679Moxon Mech. Exerc. ix. 166 A Door is said to Drag when..the bottom edge of the Door rides (in its sweep) upon the Floor. 1680Ibid. xiii. 220 (Turning Hard Wood) They lay their Tool flat and steddy upon the Rest; which being hard held in this position, does by the coming about of the Work, cut or tear off all the Extuberances the Tool touches in the sweep of the Work... For should it in one sweep of the Work be thrust nearer the Axis in any place, it would there take off more than it should. 1780J. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 386 The French and Spanish fleets have made a sweep of sixty upon the English East India and West India fleets. 1798S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 441 Taking suddenly a bold sweep, the stream smoothed..ere it discharged itself into the sea. 1821Craig Lect. Drawing, etc. v. 284 The species of sweep, curve, or twist, which the branches take in diverging from the trunk. 1869Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. D 5, The top of the jib, and consequently the forked hanger suspended from it..make a sweep from side to side in front of the furnace. a1900S. Crane Gt. Battles (1901) 15 The sweep of the Allies under Graham around the French right. 1914Times 12 Sept. 8/3 When the enemy's sweep to the south-east of Paris was checked on the Grand Morin.
†b. The course (of a river). Obs. rare.
1596Lambarde Peramb. Kent (ed. 2) 259 Neither of them standeth in the full sweepe, or right course, of those Riuers, but in a diuerticle, or by way.
c. Gunnery. The lateral movement of a gun in distributing fire over a given front.
1907Bethell Mod. Guns & Gunnery 172 If we multiply the front of the target in degrees by 10, this will give the outward deflection and sweep required in minutes.
d. Electronics. A steady movement across the screen of a cathode-ray tube of the spot produced by the electron beam; the moving spot itself, or the line it generates.
1924Wireless World 5 Mar. 705/2 The approximate form of transient phenomena may also be indicated, if the frequency is low enough to enable a single sweep of the ray across the screen to be seen. 1946Radar: Summary Rep. & Harp Project (U.S. Nat. Defense Res. Comm., Div. 14) 144/1 By making this motion rapid and continuous, the point of light becomes a line of light, and is called a sweep. 1958New Scientist 10 Apr. 17/2 A ray of greenish-blue light—the sweep—pivots on the centre of the tube like the spokes of a wheel. 1966M. Woodhouse Tree Frog xxi. 154 The bright scanning sweep swung around the orange tube face of the monitor like the seconds' hand of a stop-watch. 1975G. J. King Audio Handbk. v. 114 The oscilloscope's time-base is switched off and the horizontal sweep provided by high-level signal from the audio oscillator.
e. Electronics. A steady, usu. repeated, change in the magnitude or frequency of a voltage or other quantity between definite limits.
1930Proc. IRE XVIII. 590 A single sweep, exposing each tone about 1/150th of a second was found sufficient to give a useful record. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XIII. 336/1 Hyperbolic sweeps may be generated as a modification of the type of circuitry used in the generation of saw-tooth sweep waveforms. 1975D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. xvi. 29 Circuits delivering a linear voltage sweep fall into two categories, the Miller time base and bootstrap time base.
7. Astr. A term used by Sir William Herschel to denote a method of surveying the heavens in sections (see quots. and cf. sweep v. 21); also, one of such sections of observation. Rarely gen. the survey of an extensive region.
1784Sir W. Herschel Sci. Papers (1912) I. 165 It occurred to me that the intermediate spaces between the sweeps might also contain nebulæ. 1786Ibid. 261 The instrument was..either lowered or raised about 8 or 10 minutes, and another oscillation was then performed like the first. Thus I continued generally for about 10, 20, or 30 oscillations,..and the whole of it was then called a Sweep. 1841Myers Cath. Th. iii. §45. 172 A rich apparatus fitted alike for the wide sweep of celestial scenery, and the strictest scrutiny of a terrestrial atom. 1867G. F. Chambers Astron. (1876) 920 Sweep, sweeping, terms introduced by Sir W. Herschel to describe his practice of surveying the heavens by clamping his telescope in successive parallels of declination, and allowing during a series of equal intervals of time, portions of the sky to pass under view by diurnal motion.
8. a. An act of sweeping with a broom.
Also with advs.: e.g. to give a room a good sweep, sweep-out, or sweep-up.
1818Scott Br. Lamm. xv, When his [sc. a spider's] whole web..is destroyed by the chance sweep of a broom. 1908Contemp. Rev. Feb. 155, I have known outdoor paupers who..would let their rooms go for the month without ever a single ‘sweep-up’.
b. fig. A comprehensive search, esp. in relation to crime investigation; spec. a search for electronic listening devices. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1966Wall St. Jrnl. 17 Feb. 1/4 In Burns' ‘sweeps’..specialists check furniture, light switches, air vents, drapes, rugs, telephones, pictures and walls with..detection gear. 1973Times 18 June 2/7 One of the largest British-based international companies recently employed a security firm to conduct 30 anti-bugging ‘sweeps’ on its premises every month. 1974Union (S. Carolina) Daily Times 20 Apr. 1/7 Police mounted a room-by-room sweep of hotels..in search of Dantzler. 1978J. Gardner Dancing Dodo xiii. 93 ‘Overshoot?’ Dobson queried reflectively... ‘Will you do a sweep of the files?’
9. The action of a garment, etc. brushing, or of the hand or an instrument passing in continuous movement, along or over a surface.
1820Shelley Sensit. Pl. ii. 27 Wherever her aëry footstep trod, Her trailing hair from the grassy sod Erased its light vestige, with shadowy sweep. 1855Browning Fra Lippo 52 A sweep of lute-strings. 1856Miss Warner Hills Shatemuc xl, The old man's brush made long sweeps back and forward over the shining gunwale. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola xliii, The tramp of footsteps, and the faint sweep of woollen garments. 1893J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (1907) 59 The developer is now poured, with a gentle sweep, over the plate.
10. Cards.
a. In the game of casino, a pairing or combining all the cards on the board, resulting in the removal of all of them.
b. In whist, the winning of all the tricks in a hand; a slam.
1814Hoyle's Games Improved 161 (Cassino) Do not neglect sweeping the board when opportunity offers; always prefer taking up the card laid down by the opponent, also as many as possible with one; endeavouring likewise to win the last cards or final sweep. 1879in Webster Suppl.
11. Physics. A process of settling, or tending to settle, into thermal equilibrium.
1903W. S. Franklin in Science 20 Nov. 647/2 The settling of a closed system to thermal equilibrium is called a simple sweep.
II. Range, extent.
12. Compass, reach, or range of movement, esp. in a circular or curving course.
1679Moxon Mech. Exerc. ix. 159 If the Boards of the Floor chance to swell within the sweep of the Door. 1680Ibid. x. 184 The Sweep of the Treddle being so small. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. xi. 251 The whole sweep of our squadron, within which nothing could pass undiscovered, was at least twenty-four leagues in extent. 1779J. Moore View Soc. Fr. (1789) I. xix. 154 All within one sweep of the eye. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. v. (1856) 38 In our wake, and just outside the sweep of our oars. 1861Craik Hist. Eng. Lit. II. 158 From the minutest disclosures of the microscope to beyond the farthest sweep of the telescope. 1878Conder Tentwork Pal. I. viii. 242 Huge camels, loaded with fire⁓wood, come rolling by, and oblige you to crouch against the wall to avoid the sweep of the load. 1886Field 20 Mar. 353/1 The fishermen waiting till they see a salmon show within the sweep of the net.
13. a. Extent of ground, water, etc.; an extent, stretch, or expanse, such as can be taken in at one survey or is included in a wide-spreading curve.
1767Jago Edge-hill ii. 92 The Lawns, With spacious Sweep, and wild Declivity. 1791W. Gilpin Forest Scenery II. 49 It's woody scenes, it's extended lawns, and vast sweeps of wild country. 1842Tennyson Audley Court 12 By many a sweep Of meadow smooth from aftermath. 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. ii. 128 The whole sweep of mountains which enclose the western plains of Asia. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) v. 131 So noble and varied a sweep of glacier is visible nowhere else in the Alps. 1885Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines (1889) 35 A lovely coast..with its red sand⁓hills and wide sweeps of vivid green. 1906Sir F. Treves Highways Dorset xii. 192 A long sickle-shaped sweep of fawn-coloured sand.
b. A series (of buildings); † a suite (of rooms).
1751Smollett Per. Pic. cv, The rooms were every way suitable,..and our hero imagined they had made a tour through the whole sweep, [etc.]. 1772T. Nugent tr. Grosley's Tour Lond. I. 348 The apartment of the first story, consisting of a sweep of seven chambers. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 42 A sweep of shops..and all manner of open-air dealers.
14. Extent or range of thought, observation, experience, influence, power, etc.
1781Cowper Table-T. 474 Tyranny sends the chain, that must abridge The noble sweep of all their privilege. 1839Hallam Lit. Eur. iii. vi. §87 He wanted that large sweep of reflection and experience which is required for the greater diversity of the other sex. 1855Edin. Rev. July 296 The extensive sweep of these four great principles did not escape the penetration of Russia. 1874Green Short Hist. viii. §5. 501 London..was brought within the sweep of Royal extortion. 1877C. Geikie Christ i. I. 5 [Christ] threw down the wall of separation, and consecrated the whole sweep of existence.
15. Aeronaut. = sweepback s.v. sweep- 3.
1914Aeroplane 26 Mar. 358/2 (caption) Plan view of the Grahame-White biplane, showing sweep of wings. 1947Aircraft Engin. June 180/2 As can be seen..the sweep is 38°..for the main plane and rather less for the tail plane. 1976Farnborough Internat. Exhibition (Official Programme) 41 Studies indicate that, by adjusting the angle of sweep, fuel consumption..can be materially reduced.
III. A curve or curved object, etc.
16. a. A curved line or form; a curve; also, curvature.
1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 85 The Model, by means of which the Workman may give Chimneys that Sweep or Curvature which they ought to have. 1731W. Halfpenny Perspective 27 Take OC, strike a sweep towards B; from B, draw a Line to I. 1739S. Sharp Treat. Surgery x. 51 Having made one Incision..a little circularly, begin a second in the same Point as the first, bringing it with an opposite Sweep to meet the other. 1804C. B. Brown tr. Volney's View Soil U.S. 91 An extensive meadow, through which the St. Laurence flows, in three sweeps or bends. 1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 637 Glass can be bent to circular sweeps. 1855Orr's Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat. 150 A soft rock..has been scooped out into sweeps and rounded surfaces. 1881Young Ev. Man his own Mechanic §38 It admits of being bent almost double without snapping and on that account it is well adapted to be used for curved work if the sweep be not too small.
b. The continuously curved part of an arch.
1685Dryden Albion & Albanus Frontispiece c j, On the sweep of the Arch lies one of the Muses. 1721Bailey, Key-Stone..is the middle Stone of an Arch, to bind the Sweeps of the Arch together. 1835J. Greenwood Tour Thornton Abbey 36 A pointed window of three lights, with perpendicular tracery in the sweep.
†c. Shipbuilding. An arc or curved line used in a plan to indicate the shape of the timbers; the curve of a ship's timbers. Obs.
1627Capt. J. Smith Sea. Gram. ii. 3 Those ground timbers doe giue the floore of the ship, being straight, sauing at the ends they begin to compasse, and there they are called the Rungheads, and doth direct the Sweepe or Mould of the Foot-hookes and Nauell timbers. a1647Pette in Archaeologia XII. 248 The great platform,..where all the lines of the midship bend were drawn..with their centres, perpendiculars, and sweeps. 1664Bushnell Compl. Ship-Wright 14 Here in this Draught I draw a Sweepe, or a piece of a Circle from the point G. Ibid. 15 Then make the Moulds by their Sweepes. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v., The Seamen call the Mold of a Ship when she begins to compass in at the Rungheads, the Sweep of her; or the Sweep of the Futtocks. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 378/2 (Shipbuilding) A frame of timbers is commonly formed by arches of circles called sweeps. There are generally five sweeps,..the floor sweep..the lower breadth sweep..the reconciling sweep..the upper breadth sweep..the top timber sweep.
d. A flowing line (of drapery, hair, the contour of a limb, etc.); also semi-concr.
1784Cowper Task i. 352 Well-roll'd walks, With curvature of slow and easy sweep. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. x, That graceful and easy sweep of outline which at once indicates health and beautiful proportion of parts. 1823― Quentin D. xiii, The dark and downward sweep of his long-descending beard. 1858Kingsley Misc., My Winter-Garden (1859) I. 153 See the depth of chest, the sweep of loin. 1868Helps Realmah viii. (1876) 214 She trails after her in the muddy streets an ample sweep of flowing drapery. 1890Atlantic Monthly Mar. 353/2 Deep, wistful gray eyes, under a sweep of brown hair that fell across his forehead. 1894Crockett Raiders v, Narrow tongues of fire and great sweeps of smoke drove to leeward.
e. A projecting contour or face of a wall, column, etc.
1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. II. 20 The Sweeps are two, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the Column, and are called Sweeps upon account of their running out a little beyond the rest of the Shaft. 1731Gentl. Mag. Nov. 488/1 The Descent formerly craggy..is now firm,..by 17 Traverses, the Sweeps and Angles wall'd with Stones. 1816J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 146 The shafts do not in this style generally stand free, but are parts of the sweep of mouldings.
f. Forestry. The natural curve of a tree or log of wood.
1932Chapman & Demeritt Elem. Forest Mensuration xi. 179 The extent of the actual loss of boards by reason of crook or sweep depends on the minimum length of a merchantable board. 1946Q. Jrnl. Forestry XL. 52 Many of the trees had a severe ‘sweep’ which resulted in the very poor output of suitable telegraph pole material. 1957Brit. Commonw. Forest Terminol. ii. 192 Sweep, the natural bend of a log, generally applied to long gentle bends.
17. Concrete uses.
a. A curved mass of building or masonry.
1766Entick London IV. 414 The pillars are terminated to the east by a sweep,..in a kind of semicircle. 1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 87 A curved wall or sweep of masonry, which is made concentric with the wheel. 1859Dickens T. Two Cities ii. ix, Two stone sweeps of stair⁓case meeting in a stone terrace before the principal door.
b. ‘A semicircular plank fixed up under the beams near the fore-end of the tiller, which it supports’ (Rudim. Navig. c 1850); a similar support on which a gun travels.
1756Gentl. Mag. Jan. 15/1 The tiller..having born so hard upon the sweep as almost to have worn it through. 1837Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 28/1 Her armament..consists of 14 long 32-pounders, and two 84-pounders on circular sweeps.
c. A curved carriage drive leading to a house.
1797Jane Austen Sense & Sens. iii. xiv. (1811) 326 They could superintend the progress of the parsonage..could choose papers, project shrubberies, and invent a sweep. 1838Lytton Alice i. ix, The narrow sweep that conducted from the lodge to the house. 1897Stevenson St. Ives xii, The lane twisted..and showed me a gate and the beginning of a gravel sweep.
d. In pattern-making, a short segment of a circle used in making a ring, being shifted round on its centre several times in succession until the ring is completed.
1885[Horner] Pattern Making 82 The sweep, with its bosses and prints, is rammed up in sand level with its top face, and withdrawn. It is then carried round exactly one-sixth of its circumference, and its right-hand print and boss is dropping into the impression just made by its left-hand print and boss. There the sweep is again rammed up, to be again withdrawn and removed, until the ring, with its six bosses and six prints is completed.
IV. That which is swept up.
†18. The crop of hay raised from a meadow. Obs. local.
1672Manley Cowell's Interpr., Swepage, is the Crop of Hay got in a Meadow, called also The swepe in some parts of England [referring to Coke On Litt. fol. 4: see sweepage 2.]
19. collect. sing. or pl. The sweepings of gold and silver dust from the workshops of goldsmiths, silversmiths, etc.
a1771H. Pemberton Course Chem. 282 Our refiners have an operation something similar to this, which they call melting their sweep. 1778Pryce Min. Cornub. 246 The inhabitants of Africa..dress their Gold-dust in small bowls, after the manner that Gold-smiths wash their sweeps. 1852Househ. Words V. 275/2 A lot of ‘good handy sweeps’! 1884in Standard 4 Jan. 2/5 They were blockers, and had to remove the gold waste from the books..that were being gilt. That was called ‘sweep’.
20. = sweepstake 3.
1849Bentley's Misc. XXVI. 573 The public-house wherein the ‘sweep’ is got up so philanthropically. 1888Kipling Departm. Ditties, Maxims of Hafiz xii, The gold that we spend On a Derby Sweep.
21. That which is swept up, in, along, etc.
1838James Robber vi, He thought it would be a good sweep for us all, if we could get the bags. 1873Tristram Moab xi. 196 The sweep of sediment which comes down with the floods. 1893Daily News 25 Dec. 2/1 This gathering is not a mere sweep in from the streets.
22. = almond-furnace.
After G. gekrätzofen, lit. sweepings-furnace.
1706Phillips (ed. Kersey). 1728Chambers Cycl., The Almond-Furnace, called also the Sweep, is usually six Foot high, four wide, and two thick.
V. Apparatus that sweeps or has a sweeping motion.
†23. A broom or mop: in oven-swepe. Obs.
c1475Promp. Parv. (Phillipps MS.) 323/2 Ouen swepe, dossorium, tersorium.
24. An apparatus for drawing water from a well, consisting of a long pole attached to an upright which serves as a fulcrum; hence, a pump-handle.
1548Elyot, Telo,..a great poste and high is set faste, then ouer it cometh a longe beame, whiche renneth on a pynne, so that the one ende hauyng more poyse then the other, causeth the lighter ende to rise; with suche beere brewers in London dooe drawe vp water, thei call it a sweepe. 1598Florio, Toleone, Tolleone, an engine to draw vp water, called a sweepe. 1660R. D'acres Water-drawing ii. i. 11 Those that are moved to and fro, men cannot so well command with that free and full strength, as they may the perpendicular sweaps which move up and down. 1747Hooson Miner's Dict. Q ij, Those common Pumps used in the Mines, such as Raggs, Churns, Sweaps, Forces. 1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 105 Mr. Smeaton always used such sweeps,..it is certainly preferable to any intricate work in the form of the buckets. 1896Howells Impressions & Exp. 257 The boatmen smoked on the gunwales or indolently plied the long sweeps of their pumps. 1913Blackw. Mag. Sept. 324/1 Wells with the old-fashioned ‘sweep’.
†25. A ballista. Obs. (exc. Her.).
1598Florio, Telone, an instrument of warre like that which brewers vse with a crosse beame to drawe water, it is called a sweepe. 1661Morgan Sph. Gentry ii. viii. 104 Argent a Sweep azure, charged with a Stone Or, [borne] by the name of Magnall. [1892Woodward & Burnett Her. 365.]
26. Applied to various kinds of levers, or to a long bar which is swept round so as to turn a shaft.
1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 89 The Horses and Cattle being put to their tackle, they go about, and by their force turne (by the sweeps) the middle roller. 1688Holme Armoury iii. xxi. (Roxb.) 267/1 The Sweep and String, is the moveing beame..which hanging by the middle..so that drawing the end down, by the tradle; the other end riseth, and with it string draws vp the Leaded Hammer. 1763Museum Rust. I. lxi. 259 F, is the sweep, whereby the cutter plays up and down when in use. 1799A. Young Agric. Linc. 152 Two sweeps annexed to the wheels, and going the circle with them. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Sweep..the lever of a horse-power or pug-mill. 1884C. T. Davis Manuf. Bricks, etc. v. (1889) 144 Broad, curved pieces of iron, called sweeps, pressers, or pushers,..their use is to force the tempered clay through an opening near the bottom, in the side of the cylinder or box inclosing the pug-mill.
27. A sail of a windmill. Also occas. a paddle of a water-wheel.
1702W. J. Bruyn's Voy. Levant xxxii. 124 Several Wind-Mills..The Sweeps whereof are more Numerous than ours are. 1731Gentl. Mag. I. 221/2 As Mr. Richards..was viewing a Windmill by Bow, the Sweeps turning of a sudden dash'd out his Brains. 1741J. Taylor Patent Specif. No. 576 Every one of these sweeps is a thin board or plate of such wedth and depth as fit the wedth and depth of the box exactly. 1836Boston etc. Herald 12 Apr. 2/5 Miss P. incautiously ventured out on the platform or gallery, and received two violent blows from the sweeps of the mill. 1923H. Belloc Sonnets & Verse iii. 119 The sweeps have fallen from Ha'nacker Mill. 1968J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 170 The original form of sweep consisted of a light framework mounted on each stock, or sail-arm, over which a canvas sail was set or furled according to the wind.
28. A long oar used to propel a ship, barge, etc. when becalmed, or to assist the work of steering.
1800Asiat. Ann. Reg., Misc. Tr. 223/1 These vessels should..be so constructed as to be rowed by sweeps (or large oars) in calm weather. 1833M. Scott Tom Cringle xv. (1842) 377 The wind died away altogether—and ‘out sweeps’ was the word. 1890Hosie Three Yrs. W. China 68 Our craft, guided by stern and bow sweeps, dashed four and five feet at a bound. 1892W. Pike North. Canada 6 The boats are steered with a huge sweep passed through a ring in the stern post. 1894C. N. Robinson Brit. Fleet 204 Sweeps, or long pulling oars..were also furnished to every vessel.
29. A plate, frame, or the like for sweeping off, up (etc.), grain, soil, etc.
1825J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 449 The sweep, making part of the inner rake, occasionally let down for sweeping off all the seed.
30. A length of cable used for sweeping the bottom of the sea, in mine-laying, mine-sweeping, etc.
1775N. D. Falck Day's Diving Vessel 49 When a cable..is used in its full length, without making it into any particular form, it is generally called in this operation a sweep. 1904Daily Chron. 30 Nov. 8/1 The ‘sweep,’ which consists of a surface line 20 fathoms, or 120 feet long, carrying under-water charges of guncotton. 1915Chambers's Jrnl. June 387/2 Those six small gray ships will return with..a fearsome tale of many mines caught in their sweeps and destroyed. 1923Man. Seamanship (Admiralty) II. 172 The vessel..puts the end of the sweep on a slip somewhere on her quarter-deck. 1943His Majesty's Minesweepers (Min. of Information) 8/1 The thud of the explosion as a mine, caught in a sweep, detonated under a trawler's counter.
31. An instrument used for drawing curves at a large radius, a beam-compass. Also, a profile tool for cutting mouldings in wood or metal in a lathe.
1680Moxon Mech. Exerc. xiii. 226, I placed the Center⁓point of the Sweep in a Center-hole made in a square Stud of Mettal... I provided a strong Iron Bar for the Beam of a Sweep. 1711W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 77 The instruments which we term Sweeps, to mark out the Curves that compose the Body. 1847Halliwell, Sweep... (3) An instrument used by turners for making mouldings in wood or metal.
32. Founding. A movable templet used in loam-moulding, a striking-board.
1864in Webster.
VI. One who sweeps (and derived senses).
33. a. A chimney-sweeper.
Prob. taken from the chimney-sweeper's street cry ‘Sweep!’ as chimney-sweep (1614 Chapman in Chris. Brooke's Poems, ed. Grosart, 50) was from the earlier cry ‘Chimney sweep!’ See also sweep-chimney (s.v. sweep- 2) and sweepy n.
1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., Archit. Atoms, A mingled noise of dustmen, milk, and sweeps. 1827Hood Bianca's Dream 108 In skin as sooty as a sweep. 1861E. T. Holland in Peaks, Passes, & Glaciers Ser. ii. I. 91 The small black particles filled our eyes,..and our faces soon became almost as black as sweeps.
Phr.1842S. Lover Handy Andy i. 8 That peculiar pace which is elegantly called a sweep's trot. 1878Walsham Surg. Pathol. xiii. 369 From the great frequency with which it occurs in chimney-sweepers, cancer of the scrotum is generally designated the soot- or sweep's-cancer.
b. the Sweeps: a nickname for the Rifle Brigade.
1879All Year Round 5 Apr. 371/2 The Sweeps and the Jollies—the active and intrepid lads of the Rifle Brigade and the Marine Light Infantry. 1888Nicknames in Army 112 Rifle Brigade.—‘The Sweeps,’ from its dark coloured uniform and facings.
c. A disreputable person; a scamp, blackguard. slang and dial.
1853Househ. Words VIII. 75/2 A low person is a snob, a sweep, and a scurf. 1888W. E. Norris Chris vi, Fancy making up to a drunken sweep like that just because he has a few thousands a year! 1903Farmer & Henley Slang, Sweep..A term of contempt: e.g. ‘What a sweep the man is’; ‘You dirty sweep’.
d. Name for two Australasian marine fishes, Scorpis æquipennis and Incisidens simplex.
1840F. D. Bennett Whaling Voy. I. 23 They were chiefly of the kinds known as ‘rock-cod’, ‘snappers’, or gilt-heads, ‘sweeps’, and ‘rudder-fish’, or scad. 1883E. P. Ramsay Food Fishes N.S. Wales 12 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.) The ‘sweep,’ Scorpus æquipinnis, is the only fish of this family that is used with us as an article of food.
34. a. A crossing-sweeper. b. U.S. A servant who looks after university students' rooms. Chiefly at Yale University. ? Obs.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Sweep, a crossing-sweeper. 1900Dialect Notes II. 65 Sweep, n., a care-taker of college rooms at Yale, where negro boys are employed. 1950Harvard Alumni Bull. 22 Apr. 590/3 In early times, sweeper was in use instead of goody, and even now at Yale College the word sweep is retained.
VII. 35. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 6 d, e) sweep amplifier, sweep generator, sweep oscillator, sweep voltage; (in sense 17 c) sweep-gate; (in sense 19) sweep-smelter, sweep-washer, sweep-washings; (sense 20) sweep-ticket; (in sense 34) sweep-boy; sweep-head, the upper end or handle of a large oar (sense 28); sweep-swinger U.S., an oarsman in a racing boat. (See also sweep-.)
1947R. Lee Electronic Transformers & Circuits i. 4 Make efficient transformers for the non-sinusoidal wave shapes such as are encountered in pulse, video, and *sweep amplifiers.
1818Maginn in Blackw. Mag. III. 53 I'd rather see a *sweep-boy suck a penny roll, Than listen to a criticising woman.
1798Jane Austen Northang. Abb. xxix, To have it [sc. a post-chaise] stop at the *sweep-gate was a sight to brighten every eye. 1847Mrs. Gore Castles in Air xxv. II. 305 On approaching the sweep-gates of the villa.
1946Radar: Summary Rep. & Harp Project (U.S. Nat. Defense Res. Comm., Div. 14) 144/1 *Sweep circuit or generator, a circuit which produces at regular intervals an approximately linear or circular, or other form of movement (sweep) of the beam of the cathode-ray tube. 1975D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. xvi. 29 Sweep generators may also be looked upon as integrators with a constant-amplitude input signal.
1881Kipling Departm. Ditties, Galley-Slave ii, We gripped the kicking *sweep-head and we made that galley go.
1939H. J. Reich Theory & Application Electron Tubes xv. 596 Practical *sweep oscillators do not furnish a voltage that satisfies the requirements for a perfect sweep voltage. 1967Electronics 6 Mar. 2 (Advt.), All solid-state Hewlett-Packard 3211A sweep oscillators..meet virtually all of your swept frequency testing requirements.
1949N.Y. Times 12 June 48/4 Hundreds of *sweepswingers are sweating it out..on Connecticut's Thames River. 1971L. Koppett N.Y. Times Guide Spectator Sports xviii. 234 A crewman is a ‘sweepswinger’.
1930Daily Express 23 May 3/4 Who sent out the Mayfair Luncheon Club's {pstlg}20,000 *sweep tickets?
1934J. H. Reyner Television vii. 78 The spot can be shifted horizontally or vertically, as required, irrespective of the *sweep or work voltages. 1962Simpson & Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors xvii. 443 The simplest sweep voltage is obtained by suddenly applying a d.c. voltage V to a resistor R and a capacitor C in series and taking the voltage across the capacitor as the output.
1815J. T. Smith Anc. Topog. Lond. 20 The *Sweepwasher is a person who buys the sweepings of the floors of the working gold and silver smith and also the water in which the workmen wash their hands. 1833in R. Ellis Customs (1840) IV. 154 Sweep-washer's dirt may be landed and delivered without entry, on due examination. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 1225 Sweep-washer, is the person who extracts from the sweepings, potsherds, etc., of refineries of silver and gold, the small residuum of precious metal.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Sweep-washings, the refuse of shops in which gold and silver are worked.
Add:[I.] [8.] c. pl. (except attrib.). A survey of the relative popularity ratings of local television stations, esp. according to the Nielsen index, taken at regular intervals to determine advertising rates; also, a period during which these statistics are compiled. U.S.
1970Newsweek 30 Nov. 86/3 There is a temptation to look one's best during sweeps, but the practice of ‘loading’, or temporarily beefing up programming, is specifically forbidden by Federal unfair-competition regulations. Ibid. 86/1 During the sweep weeks you get good television. During the rest of the year you get junk. 1976Forbes (N.Y.) 15 June 46/2 Nielsen takes ‘sweeps’ in all local markets periodically. 1982N.Y. Times 2 June c26/4 Channel 7..dominated the local Nielsen news ratings during the May ‘sweeps’. 1990TV Guide (U.S.) 3 Feb. 25/1 Ratings sweeps have been known to inspire even the most staid TV station to become a little racy or, at the very least, to dish out more of the fluff and puff.
▪ II. sweep, v.|swiːp|
Forms: 4–6 swepe, 4–7 sweepe, 5 swep, 6 sweppe, swyp(e, Sc. sweip, 6–7, 9 dial. swip(e, 6– sweep. pa. tense 4 swepid, sueped, swepte, 5 sweppit, 7 sweeped, 6– swept. pa. pple. 4 sweped, sueped, -et, iswepid, squepid, 5 swyped, 6–8 sweeped, 7 sweept, 7–8 sweep'd; 5 yswepped, 5–6 swepte, 6– swept (9 dial. swep', Sc. sweepit); strong 5 yswepe, sweppene.
[ME. swepe (taking the place of the original swope, OE. swápan, swéop, swápen), first recorded from northern texts; of uncertain origin. Two suggestions of source have been made, both of which involve phonological difficulties. (1) The mutated stem swǽp- (cf. ᵹeswǽpa beside -ᵹeswáp sweepings, ymbswǽpe ‘ambages’). This would normally have produced a mod.Eng. *sweap, but in its transference from the northern to the southern area, swepe may have been assimilated to words like slepe (OE. Anglian slépan) to sleep, or crepe (OE. créopan) to creep, the process being perhaps assisted by the pa. tense swep-e (OE. swéop) of the original strong verb. (2) ON. svipa to move swiftly and suddenly. This etymology involves the assumption that ON. ĭ became ME. ē, which is not otherwise clearly authenticated, and that the intransitive sense (22) is the original.
The shortening of the stem-vowel in pa. tense and pa. pple. is shown in spellings c 1400.
The order of sense-development presents difficulties, it being uncertain whether the transitive or intransitive meanings are the primary ones. The present arrangement of the word is adopted as convenient from the modern point of view, since the whole word is now coloured by the meaning ‘cleanse or remove with a broom’.]
I. Senses with that which is removed or moved along as the object, and derived uses.
1. a. trans. To remove, clear away, off (etc.) with a broom or brush, or in a similar way by friction upon a surface; to brush away or off.
a1300Cursor M. 26672 (Cott.), I haue mi hert soght ilk a delle, And sueped [Fairf. squepid out] wel þat was þar-in. [After Psalm lxxvii. 6; cf. quot. a 1300 in sense 13.] 1382Wyclif Isa. xiv. 23, I shal destroȝe Babyloynes name..I shal sweepen it in a besme. 1552Huloet, Swepe away, euerro. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 158 Certen Cardinalles standing about him, whiche with foxes tayles tied to staues lyke besomes, sweepe all thinges vpsyde downe. 1579in Archaeologia LXIV. 357 For swipping and bearing rubbitch out of the hous. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 397, I am sent with broome before, To sweep the dust behinde the doore. 1650W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. §582 Sweepings and scraps are swept away with besoms. 1746Francis tr. Hor., Sat. ii. viii. 15 Another sweeps the fragments of the feast. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt i, The old lodge-keeper..was wanted at the Court to sweep away the leaves. 1902R. Bagot Donna Diana xiii. 139 Leaving his housekeeper to clear away the empty plates and dishes and sweep the breadcrumbs off the wine-stained table cloth.
b. Curling. = soop v.3 Also absol.
1811Acc. Game Curling 44 A player may sweep his own stone the whole length of the rink; his party not to sweep until it has passed the hog-score at the farther end. 1910Encycl. Brit. VII. 647 (Curling), No party except when sweeping according to rule, shall go upon the middle of the rink, or cross it.
2. a. To cut down or off with a vigorous swinging stroke. Now rare or Obs.
a1400Morte Arth. 2508 Now ferkes to þe fyrthe thees fresche mene of armes..In the myste mornynge one a mede falles,..In swathes sweppene downe, fulle of swete floures. c1440J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. v. 1572 Thi owen wyues heed of þou dede sweepe. 1823Scott Quentin D. vi, I would rather you swept my head off with your long sword; it would better become my birth, than to die by the hands of such a foul churl. 1840Thackeray Catherine viii, The reapers sweeping down the brown corn.
b. Cricket. To hit (the ball) with a sweep (sense 5 b). Also absol. or intr., to play a sweep.
1920[see sweep n. 5 b]. 1958D. Bradman Art of Cricket 80 An inviting half-volley comes along... The greater scoring medium would be to sweep it fine. 1963Times 19 Feb. 4/2 He is a fine cutter and an enthusiastic sweeper. Today he swept only twice, lest the shot should get him into trouble, as it sometimes does. 1965D. Silk Attacking Cricket iv. 60 The batsman must always try to sweep the ball along the ground. 1976Star (Sheffield) 30 Nov., Fletcher eventually fell lbw sweeping at Eknath Solkar.
3. To remove with a forcible continuous action; to brush off, away, aside.
1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 188 b, The mothes, if they appeare, must bee sweeped away. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 126 My hounds..their heads are hung With eares that sweepe away the morning dew. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 469 The Gouernour caused Areta..to gather and swipe the Vermine vpon me. 1829Chapters Phys. Sci. 449 The same diluvial agency..appears also to have swept off the superior strata from extensive tracts. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. (1862) 17 The gases are to be swept out of the apparatus in the manner already described. 1865Kingsley Herew. xxvii, Sweep the chessmen off the board. 1867W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal-mining 64 The upper part of the series..has been swept away by denudation. 1867A. J. Wilson Vashti xxviii, Leaning against the railing, she impatiently swept off the snowy lemon leaves. 1908S. E. White Riverman ix, Miss Bishop turned to the piano, sweeping aside her white draperies as she sat. Ibid. xvii, She swept aside the portières.
4. transf. chiefly with adv. or advb. phr.: To clear out, drive away, or carry off from a place or region, (as if) forcibly or by violence. Also fig.
1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. vii. 13 Thus haue we swept Suspition from our Seate, And made our Footstoole of Security. 1605― Macb. iii. i. 119 Though I could With bare-fac'd power sweepe him from my sight. 1613― Hen. VIII, v. iv. 13 Vnlesse we sweepe 'em from the dore with Cannons. 1645Gataker God's Eye on Israel 29 Who draw up whatsoever cometh to hand, with the hooke, and sweep all away hand over head, with their net. 1700S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 67 Those that were still coming up..we swept down like a swarm of Bees, with our..Fire-arms. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 29 May, The tide of luxury has swept all the inhabitants from the open country. 1779Mirror No. 36 ⁋2 When Xerxes..saw all his troops ranged in order before him, he burst into tears at the thought, that..they would be sweeped from the face of the earth. 1831D. E. Williams Life & Corr. Sir T. Lawrence II. 257 A..storm..In its fury it had just swept away the pier at Ryde. 1835Lytton Rienzi ii. i, Let us sweep, then, our past conference from our recollection. 1842S. Lover Handy Andy i. 13 Divil sweep you! 1855Prescott Philip II, i. vi. (1857) 106 The Moslems..butchered the inhabitants, or swept them off into hopeless slavery. 1906A. Werner Natives Brit. Centr. Afr. xii. 284 When the invaders retired, they..cultivated their gardens in the plains, but only to have their crops swept off by fresh raids.
5. Chiefly with away: To remove forcibly or as at one blow from its position or status, or out of existence; to do away with, destroy utterly.
1560Bible (Genev.) Isa. xxviii. 17 The haile shal swepe away the vaine confidence. 1611― Jer. xlvi. 15 Why are thy valiant men swept away? 1632Sanderson Serm. 316 When He..sweepeth away religious Princes, wise Senatours, zealous Magistrates. 1643Howell Twelve Treat. (1661) 238 The ragingst Plague that ever was in Spain..happen'd of late years, which sweep'd away such a world of people. a1720Sewel Hist. Quakers (1795) I. Pref. p. xvi, These God will leave to be trodden down and swept away by the Gentiles. 1726Pope Odyss. xxiv. 134 Did the rage of stormy Neptune sweep Your lives at once, and whelm beneath the deep? 1833Landor Imag. Conv., P. Scipio æmilianus, etc. Wks. 1846 II. 246/2 In one Olympiad the three greatest men that ever appeared together were swept off. 1847L. Hunt Men, Women, & Bks. II. viii. 158 The heart of man is constantly sweeping away the errors he gets into his brain. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 31 Long after Carthage and the Carthaginians had been swept away. 1878Dale Lect. Preach. iii. 83 In the early part of the third chapter the last hopes of the Jews are swept away.
6. a. To carry or drive along with force; to carry away or off by driving before it, as a wind, tide, stream, etc.
1743Francis tr. Hor., Odes i. vii. 24 The south wind often..Sweeps off the clouds. 1783Crabbe Village i. 128 Till some fierce tide..Sweeps the low hut and all it holds away. 1813Byron Giaour 18 If at times a transient breeze..sweep one blossom from the trees. 1840Marryat Poor Jack ix, The tide was sweeping us past. 1853Kingsley Hypatia v, He was swept, along with the mob in which he had been fast wedged, through a dark low passage. 1879Farrar St. Paul v. xx. I. 360 They might find the bridges shattered and swept away by the sudden spates of rushing streams.
fig.1867Parkman Jesuits N. Amer. xx. (1875) 303 The fury of the minority swept all before it.
b. to sweep off: to drink off, swallow down quickly. Obs. or dial.
1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 83 He sweeps off the lusheous Stuff [sc. lobscouse] as cleverly as a Dairy-Maid does her Butter. 1863Mrs. Toogood Yorksh. Dial. (MS.) Take the pint and sweep it off.
c. to sweep (a person) off his feet: to affect with overwhelming enthusiasm, to infatuate. Also transf. Cf. to carry (a person) off his feet s.v. foot n. 27.
1913F. L. Barclay Broken Halo xiv. 151, I remember being swept completely off my feet when I first met Jim. 1937W. R. Inge Rustic Moralist i. ii. 46, I do not approve of concentration camps, or of Jew-baiting, or of sabre⁓rattling. I only want to understand a movement which has swept a great nation off its feet. 1977Daily Mirror 16 Mar. 13/5 Mr. Lipscombe's daughter Gillian was swept off her feet by De Roth.
7. a. To drive together or into a place by or as by sweeping; to gather or take up, esp. so as to allocate or consign to a place, object, or purpose.
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 4947 Þan sal alle þe fire be sweped doune In-til helle. c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 385 The Mullok on an heepe sweped [v.rr. yswoped, iswepid, yswepped] was. 1538Elyot Addit., Conuerro,..to swepe to gether into one place. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 394 b, Oure aduersaries..destroyinge the wealthe of the Empire, swepe all into theyr owne coffers. 1570Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) II. 926/2 The Dominicke Friers..so had sweapt all the fatte to their own beardes, from the order of the Franciscanes, that all the almes came to theyr boxe. 1652Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Hist. Relat. 63 The fire thereof was rather sweep'd up then quench'd by the twelve years Truce. a1700Evelyn Diary an. 1646 (1879) I. 279 As if Nature had here swept up the rubbish of the earth in the Alpes to forme and cleere the plaines of Lombardy. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 68 He is sure to sweep fifty Pounds at least into his Pocket. 1861Reade Cloister & H. lxv, Her glorious eyes fringed with long thick silken eyelashes, that seemed made to sweep up sensitive hearts by the half dozen. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xvii. §2. 38 The heritage of many such being swept in a mass into the hands of some insatiable stranger. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate iii, Sybil swept her much-enduring instructress up to her room. 1900Times 25 July 4/5 Any mass of weed or débris that comes down with the stream will be swept into the angle of one of these sudd traps. 1911E. Rutherford in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 794/1 If a sufficiently strong field is used, the ions are all swept to the electrodes before appreciable loss of their number can occur by recombination.
b. fig. To include in its scope; to extend to.
1692R. L'Estrange Fables lxxiii. 73 The Letter of the Law Sweeps All in such a Case, without Distinction of Persons. 1886Sir J. Pearson in Law Rep. 32 Chanc. Div. 47 The words of this clause sweep in, as far as I can see, every possible liability of the company.
8. a. To gather in or up, collect wholesale or at one stroke; esp. in phr. to sweep the stakes (cf. sweepstake).
1635Shirley Traitor v. i, Death's a devouring gamester, And sweepes up all. 1672Dryden Conq. Granada, Heroique Plays ad fin., I have already swept the stakes; and with the common good fortune of prosperous Gamesters, can be content to sit quietly. 1693― Persius iii. 94 My Study was..To shun Ames-Ace, that swept my Stakes away. 1705tr. Bosman's Guinea 90 A Portuguese or Interloper..by selling cheap, sweeps a great part, if not all their Gold. 1732Pope Ep. Bathurst 71 If the stakes he sweep. 1907Daily Chron. 7 June 6/6 Sweepstakes are always swept by the man who does not want the money.
b. U.S. To win every event in (a series of sporting events, etc.), or to take each of the main places in (a contest or event).
[1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §650/7 Phlanx, sweep the event, to win all of the main events in all three first places in a meet.] 1960Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 531/1 Sweep {ddd}v.t., to win a tournament without losing a game or contest. 1974Greenville (S. Carolina) News 22 Apr. 15/1, I didn't think either team would sweep this series. 1979Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 20 Sept. 8d/3 Montreal swept a double⁓header from New York, 3–1 and 4–1.
9. To carry or trail along in a stately manner, as a flowing garment.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 6 Let frantike Talbot triumph for a while, And like a Peacock sweepe along his tayle. 1798S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. II. 90 The self-named heiress..swept her long mourning robes through the whole train of sycophants, to an upper seat in the room.
10. To move or draw (something) over and in contact with a surface.
1825Scott Talism. xxvi, Again sweeping his fingers over the strings. 1894Baring-Gould Kitty Alone II. 141 He swept the brush vigorously about, so as to disperse over the floor any particles.
11. To move (something) round with force and rapidity, or over a wide extent; to take off (one's hat) with a sweep of the arm.
1845J. Coulter Adv. in Pacific xiv. 217 He..ended the matter by sweeping round quickly our canoe, and capsized the other. 1867Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. §106 It is the case of a common spinning-top..sweeping its axis round in a cone whose axis is vertical. 1868Whitman Amer. Feuillage Poems 92 The scout..ascends a knoll and sweeps his eye around. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay i, He swept off his hat in continental style.
12. intr. and trans. [f. sweep n. 28.] To row, or to propel (a vessel), with sweeps or large oars. Also intr. of the vessel. ? Obs.
1799H. Digby in Naval Chron. II. 342 The enemy..preserved his distance by towing and sweeping to the Westward. 1804W. Carr ibid. XII. 71 Obliged..to tow and sweep her out in a dead calm. 1839Marryat Phant. Ship xxiii, They discovered a proa,..sweeping after them.
II. Senses with that over which something moves or is moved as the object.
13. a. trans. To pass a broom or brush over the surface of (something) so as to clear it of any small loose or adhering particles; to cleanse with a broom or brush (as a floor, room, or house of dust and small refuse, a path or street crossing of dirt, etc., or a chimney of soot). Also with down, out, up; and with clean as compl. Also (rarely, but cf. b) said of the broom.
a1300E.E. Psalter lxxvi. 7 [lxxvii. 6], I swepid mi gaste [orig. scopebam spiritum meum]. c1325Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 157 Si le festes nette baler [gloss suepet klene]. c1386Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 383 As vsage is, lat sweepe [v.rr. swepe, swope, swoope] the floor as swithe. c1440R. Gloucester's Chron. (Rolls) 6945 (MS. δ) On þe bar erþe yswepe [v.rr. yswope, iswope, clene swope]. a1450Knt. de la Tour viii. 11 To suepe and to kepe clene the chirche. 1483Caxton G. de la Tour cxxi. 169 Theyr chambres were..dayly made swyped clene. 1495Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xvii. clix. (W. de W.) T viij b/1 Therwyth houses ben swepte [Bodl. MS. iswope] & clensyd. 1534–5MS. Rawl. D. 777 lf. 78 Sweppyng and makyng Clene the said walk. 1535Coverdale Luke xv. 8 She..swepeth the house, and seketh diligently, tyll she fynde it. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 123 Where chamber is sweeped, and wormwood is strowne. 1592in Essex Rev. (1907) XVI. 162 He hadd seene a broome in his house swype the house without any hands. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. vii. 34, I am the Beesome that must sweepe the Court cleane of such filth as thou art. 1633G. Herbert Temple, Elixer v, Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, Makes that and th' action fine. 1683Wilding in Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 258 For sweeping my Chimney..00 00 04. a1756E. Haywood New Present (1771) 255 The steps ought to be swept down every day. 1775Lett. John Murray (1901) 225 Be careful to have the used Chimneys sweep'd once a month. 1841Thackeray Gt. Hoggarty Diam. xiii, The black man who swept the crossing. 1853Kingsley Hypatia x, The attendants..came in to sweep out the lecture-rooms. a1859Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiii. (1861) V. 45 Charles Duncombe, who was born to carry parcels and to sweep down a countinghouse. 1885‘Mrs. Alexander’ Valerie's Fate ii, She..noticed..that her fire was bright, her hearth swept up, her lamp lighted.
b. absol. or intr.; also often said of the broom, esp. in prov. new brooms sweep clean.
c1340Nominale (Skeat) 186 W[oman] with besome sweputh. c1386Chaucer Clerk's T. 922 She gan the hous to dighte..Preyynge the chambreres..To hasten hem, and faste swepe and shake. 1495Coventry Leet Bk. 565 That all persones þat haue shopes..shall swep & make clene wekely before theire shopes. 1562[see sweeper 1]. 1579W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love 16 b, The besome..wherewith the woman swept. 1656in Nicholas Papers (Camden) III. 261 There is reason to sweepe cleane where the venom sticks soe close. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 376 Nasty, ill-looked fellows come in one's room to sweep. 1809Malkin Gil Blas xi. ii. (Rtldg.) 395 New brooms, they say, sweep clean! 1865H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons xxix, There was another forge established at the bottom of Church Street, and our business grew a little slack (for new brooms sweep clean). 1886W. J. Tucker E. Europe 353, I never allow my maid to go to that part of the room, but sweep and dust myself there.
c. trans. To do the chimney-sweeping for. colloq. or vulgar.
1848Thackeray Van. Fair lx, Mr. Chummy, the chimney-purifier, who had swep' the last three families.
d. fig. To examine (premises, telephone lines, etc.) for electronic listening or recording devices. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1966Wall Street Jrnl. 17 Feb. 1/4 The companies also are having their offices regularly ‘swept’—checked by professional sleuths to find any hidden transmitters. 1968[see sweeper 5 b]. 1970K. Benton Sole Agent xx. 210 This room's all right. It was ‘swept’ only a few weeks ago. 1979J. Barnett Backfire is Hostile! iii. 37 ‘How safely can we speak on this line?’..‘The line is swept every fifteen minutes and it is very clean.’
14. a. To pass over the surface of (something) in the manner of a broom or brush; to move over and in contact with; to brush, rub like (or as with) a brush.
1500–20Dunbar Poems xiv. 73 Sic fowill tailis, to sweip the calsay clene. 1538Elyot Addit., Atta, is he that gothe so on the soles of his fete, that he swepeth the grounde, rather than walketh. 1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 33 His neck and locks fal a sweeping Thee ground. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 285 That garment is decently put on, Which doth not sweep the dust. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 98 With her length of Tail she [sc. a cow] sweeps the Ground. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 152 The long-remember'd beggar was his guest, Whose beard descending swept his aged breast. 1823Scott Quentin D. xxxiii, The plume of feathers which he wore was so high, as if intended to sweep the roof of the hall.
b. Ent. To drag a net over the surface of (herbage, etc.) in order to catch insects. Cf. sweep-net 2.
1826Kirby & Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. l. 517 For this last operation—sweeping the grass, &c.— ..you will find a net invented by Mr. Paul..a very useful implement. 1926A. H. Hamm in J. J. Walker Nat. Hist. Oxf. District 263 Hemerodromia precatoria Fln. and H. raptoria Mg. have been captured by sweeping water plants in ‘Mesopotamia’. 1977Richards & Davies Imms's Gen. Textbk. Entomol. (ed. 10) II. iii. 1205 The adults are most often obtained by sweeping or shaking the vegetation.
†15. To wipe; spec. in Falconry of a hawk, to wipe (the beak), = sew v.3 Obs.
c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 950 To swepe the nose, moucer. Ibid. 956 To swepe, torcher. 1625B. Jonson Staple of N. ii. iii. 19 stage direct., He sweepes his face. 1658Phillips s.v., A Hawk after she hath fed, is said to sweep, not wipe her beake.
16. transf. and fig. To clear of something by vigorous action compared to that of a broom; spec. to clear (a place) of enemies or a mob by firing amongst them.
to sweep the board (or † table): see board n. 5 c. to sweep the deck or (usu.) decks: to clear the deck of a ship (as by artillery, or as a wave breaking over); also fig.
1627Drayton Agincourt xlvi, First seauen Ships from Rochester are sent, The narrow Seas, of all the French to sweepe. 1678Marvell Growth Popery 54 The false Dice must at the long run Carry it, unless discovered; and when it comes once to a great Stake, will Infallibly Sweep the Table. 1748Anson's Voy. iii. viii. 379 The Commodore's grape-shot swept their decks so effectually,..that they began to fall into great disorder. 1817Scott Harold iv. i, To sweep out And cleanse our chancel from the rags of Rome. 1832Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) II. 63 A scheme..so feeble, and so swept of everything like manly wisdom,..as this. 1836Thirlwall Greece xxvi. III. 423 The country was completely swept of every thing valuable. 1856Mrs. Stowe Dred II. viii. 91 In one day houses are swept of a whole family. 1878Jefferies Gamekeeper at H. vii, These fellows..will completely sweep a lane of all the birds whose song makes them valuable. 1880Times 17 Dec. 5/6 The Casco..is reported..to have arrived at Philadelphia with decks swept, boats carried away..and with loss of sails.
17. To draw something, as a net or the bight of a rope, over the bottom of (a body of water) in search of something submerged; to drag. Also intr. to search for in this way. Also trans. to catch (something submerged) in this way.
1637B. Jonson Sad Sheph. i. ii, Earine was drown'd!..Have you swept the river, say you, and not found her? 1748Anson's Voy. ii. ii. 133 We were much concerned for the loss of our anchor, and swept frequently for it. 1769De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 7) IV. 297 Divers went to Work, and swept for her. 1805Naval Chron. XVI. 328 The Pilots..swept for and weighed the..anchors. 1820Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. II. 293 When they [sc. whales] hang perpendicular, or when they cannot be seen, they are discovered by a process called ‘sweeping a fish’. 1836Uncle Philip's Convers. Whale Fishery 82 While they are..sweeping for these lines, some of the men..jump upon the whale and lash the fins together. 1882Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 167 Sweep the upper fluke with the bight of a hawser. 1901Daily Chron. 12 Oct. 3/5 He then swept an area of half a mile from the wreck buoy to the north-westward.
18. a. To move swiftly and evenly or with continuous force over or along the surface of; in weakened sense, to pass over or across. Also fig.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 23 As..russed-pated choughes,..(Rising and cawing at the guns report) Seuer themselues, and madly sweepe the skye. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 432 All the warring Winds that sweep the Skies. 1725Pope Odyss. xiii. 186 Swift as a swallow sweeps the liquid way. 1749Smollett Regicide ii. iv, More swift than gales that sweep the plain. 1808Scott Marm. i. Introd. 11 An angry brook, it sweeps the glade. 1813Byron Giaour 73 Before Decay's effacing fingers Have swept the lines where beauty lingers. 1879S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xi. 238 The bed of the valley was swept along some parts of its width by winter torrents. 1913Daily Graphic 26 Mar. 8/4 The storm which swept the Central States on Sunday. 1957W. S. Churchill Hist. English-Speaking Peoples III. vii. 272 Although his generals and Ministers were reluctant and apprehensive a kind of delirium swept the martial classes of the Empire. 1958P. H. Gibbs Curtains of Yesterday xix. 156 That was a gruesome sight! The whole country is swept by typhus. I guess some of us may be unlucky. It may be difficult to dodge.
b. To achieve widespread popularity throughout (a town, country, etc.). Also spec. in Politics, to gain control of by an overwhelming margin.
1892Times 9 July 11/1 Mr Gladstone is not likely to ‘sweep’ the counties any more than he has ‘swept’ the boroughs. 1931W. Holtby Poor Caroline vii. 278 Tell her that that C.C.C. is going to sweep England. 1950Times 27 Apr. 4/3 Any party which, at the next election, pledged itself to forming a coalition Government no matter how big a majority it obtained would sweep the country. 1960Sunday Express 14 Aug. 12/3 The short cut is sweeping the town. 1970Morning Star 29 May 1 Ceylon's Left wing United Front led by Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike swept the polls here today. 1974News & Courier (Charleston, S. Carolina) 10 Mar. 9-a/2 Sweep the Negro vote..and pick up enough whites to come out of the primary with something more than 50 per cent of the ballots.
19. a. To range over (a region of sea or land), esp. to destroy, ravage, or capture; to scour. Also spec. with an aircraft as subject.
1788Gibbon Decl. & F. lxviii. VI. 489 Their artillery swept the waters. 1809Malkin Gil Blas v. i. ⁋68 To fit out a vessel, for the purpose of sweeping the sea and committing acts of piracy. 1825Scott Betrothed xxix, The Welsh..sweep the villages, and leave nothing behind them but blood and ashes. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. iii. 115 The Earls..swept the country as far as Edinburgh with more than the usual ferocity of a Border raid. 1884Times (weekly ed.) 7 Mar. 3/1 The force advanced—the scouts sweeping a large area on both flanks. 1897J. F. Ingram Natalia i. 11 With his magnificently organised armies he pitilessly swept the country. 1941E. Shepherd Mil. Aeroplane 26 These aeroplanes have to sweep the seas and watch enemy harbours. 1959R. Collier City that wouldn't Die iv. 56 At 9.35 p.m. the usual dusk patrol, a few day and night fighters, sweeping the raiders' normal routes. 1976A. White Long Silence vii. 53 We had picked up our fighter escort... Every so often, one or the other would peel off and sweep an observation circuit.
b. Of artillery: To have within range, to command (an extent of territory).
1748Anson's Voy. ii. xiv. 287 The cannon of the men of war would have swept all the coast to above a mile's distance from the water's edge. 1829Scott Anne of G. xxxvi, The cannon, judiciously placed to sweep the pass. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 244 Macarthy placed his cannon in such a manner as to sweep this causeway.
20. a. To pass the fingers over the strings of a musical instrument so as to cause it to sound. (With the strings, or the instrument, as obj.) Chiefly poet.
1637Milton Lycidas 17 Begin, and somwhat loudly sweep the string. 1708Pope Ode St. Cecilia 4 Wake into voice each silent string, And sweep the sounding lyre! 1805Scott Last Minstr. i. Introd. 92 He swept the sounding chords along. 1831James Phil. Augustus I. vii, He took his harp from a page, and sweeping it with a careless but a confident hand [etc.].
b. transf. To produce or elicit (music) by such action. poet.
1815Shelley Alastor 166 Her fair hands..sweeping from some strange harp Strange symphony. 1850Tennyson In Mem. ciii, The wind began to sweep A music out of sheet and shroud.
21. To direct the eyes, or an optical instrument, to every part of (a region) in succession; to take a wide survey of, to survey or view in its whole extent, esp. with a glass or telescope. Also absol. or intr.; in Astron. to make systematic observations of a region of the heavens (cf. sweep n. 7).
1727–46Thomson Summer 435 O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye Can sweep. Ibid. 1408 Here let us sweep The boundless landscape. 1786Sir W. Herschel in Phil. Trans. LXXVI. 460, I..began now to sweep with a vertical motion. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §322, I swept with my telescope..the line of the horizon. 1830Edin. Rev. LI. 94 The heavens were..swept for double stars. 1883Peard Contrad. xviii, Before they reach the door, Dorothy has swept the garden with her eye. 1890W. J. Gordon Foundry 26 The gun would remain in sight only long enough to fire. The enemy at sea would sweep the chalk hill in vain for a sign of its presence other than the smoke.
III. Intransitive senses denoting movement (esp. in a curve), and derived uses.
22. intr. To move with a strong or swift even motion; to move along over a surface or region, usu. rapidly, or with violence or destructive effect; sometimes, to come with a sudden attack, to swoop.
a. of a person, an animal, a ship (or the like).
13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1509 Swyfte swaynes ful swyþe swepen þer-tylle. a1547Surrey æneid iv. 779 With ships the seas ar spred, Cutting the fome, by the blew seas they swepe. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iii. v. 48 Harry.., that sweepes through our Land With Penons painted in the blood of Harflew. 1602― Ham. i. v. 31 That I, with wings as swift As meditation, or the thoughts of Loue, May sweepe to my Reuenge. 1697Dryden æneid ii. 271 Two Serpents..smoothly sweep along the swelling Tide. 1715Pope Iliad ii. 947 Now, like a Deluge, cov'ring all around, The shining Armies swept along the Ground. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 94 Down we sweep, as stoops the Falcon bold To pounce his Prey. 1810Scott Lady of L. iv. xii, When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are in cry. 1864G. A. Lawrence Maurice Dering II. 215 As she swept down The Row at a slinging canter. 1888Stevenson Black Arrow 76 A whole company of men-at-arms came driving round the corner,..swept before the lads, and were gone again upon the instant.
b. of water, wind, flame, etc.
13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 111 Swangeande swete þe water con swepe. c1400Destr. Troy 342 There was wellit to wale water full nobill,..With a swoughe and a swetnes sweppit on þe grounde. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 107 When the South East wind blowes, and sweepes vpon the plaine. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxxi, Their deep silence, except when the wind swept among their branches. 1835Marryat Jacob Faithful xxxix, The breeze swept along the water and caught the sails of the privateer. 1845J. Coulter Adv. in Pacific xiv. 219 There were light breezes sweeping up. 1865Kingsley Herew. xxxi, On came the flame... The archers..fell, scorched corpses, as it swept on. 1877Huxley Physiogr. 73 South and south-west winds sweeping across that ocean.
c. of non-physical things.
1832Longfellow Coplas de Manrique xxx, Our theme shall be of yesterday, Which to oblivion sweeps away, Like days of old. 1876Trevelyan Macaulay vii. II. 16 All its associations and traditions swept at once across his memory. 1889Jessopp Coming of Friars iv. 170 The plague swept over Europe.
d. To move a limb forcibly from side to side; spec. of a wounded whale swinging the flukes from side to side.
1839Capt. Wilson in Mag. Nat. Hist. Oct. 519 On endeavouring to raise the [saw-]fish it became most desperate, sweeping with its saw from side to side.
23. To move or walk in a stately manner, as with trailing garments; to move along majestically; ‘to pass with pomp’ (J.). Also with it.
1590Greene Never too late (1600) 35 Her pace was like to Iunoes pompous straines, When as she sweeps through heauens brasse-paued way. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 80 She sweepes it through the Court with troups of Ladies. 1600― A.Y.L. ii. i. 55 Sweepe on you fat and greazie Citizens. 1632Milton Penseroso 98 Som time let Gorgeous Tragedy In Scepter'd Pall com sweeping by. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles i. xvi, Let them sweep on with heedless eyes! 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre ii, I heard her sweeping away. 1854Stanley Mem. Canterb. ii. (1857) 74 The indignant silence with which Becket had swept by. 1869Trollope He knew, etc. vi, Having so spoken, she swept out of the room. 1913Standard 20 June 7/7 As the long line of carriages swept along the broad, green pathway.
fig.1822Lamb Eliana, J. Kemble & Godwin's ‘Antonio’, The first act swept by, solemn and silent.
24. To move along a surface or in the track of something like a trailing robe; to trail after; to brush along. Also fig.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 317 Those things which are yours take them all with you, and they shall sweepe after you. 1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 117 The Land, that goes sweeping away with the Eldest Son. 1839Longfellow Hymn to Night i, I heard the trailing garments of the Night Sweep through her marble halls!
25. To move continuously in a long stretch or over a wide extent, esp. round or in a curve; † to take a curve.
1725W. Halfpenny Sound Building 35 How to form the Arch or Mold of the Hand-Rail of a Pair of Stairs that sweeps two Steps quicker than in the foregoing Examples. 1826Scott Jrnl. 6 Oct., The first flight of the hawks, when they sweep so beautifully round the company. 1830Herschel Study Nat. Phil. 280 Magnificent bodies united in pairs,..sweeping over their enormous orbits, in periods comprehending many centuries. 1831James Phil. Augustus I. iii. Her eyes were long,..and the black lashes that fringed them..swept downward and lay upon her cheek. 1867A. J. Wilson Vashti xv, As she passed him,..her muslin dress swept within reach of his spur. 1875Darwin Insectiv. Pl. i. 10 The tentacles in the act of inflection sweep through a wide space. 1907Bethell Mod. Guns & Gunnery 171 The line of fire of the left gun should sweep from point 7½ to point 42½.
26. a. To extend continously through a long stretch, or widely around; to present a surface of wide extent.
1789W. Gilpin River Wye 52 Grand woody hills sweeping, and intersecting each other. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho l, The forests of pine and chestnut that swept down the lower region of the mountains. 1798Southey Engl. Ecl., Old Mansion-House 36 A carriage road That sweeps conveniently from gate to gate. 1808Scott Marm. i. i, The flanking walls that round it sweep. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 72 A road swept gently round the hill. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) iii. 71 The..glacier, sweeping in one majestic curve from the crest of the ridge. 1879S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. ii. 23 The Plain El Murka sweeps north, unbroken and entirely level.
b. trans. with cognate obj. To perform or execute (such a movement); to make (a curtsey), deal (a blow), with a sweeping motion.
[a1553Udall Royster D. iv. iv. (Arb.) 66, I with my newe broome will sweepe hym one swappe.] 1848Thackeray Van. Fair li, Becky..swept the prettiest little curtsey ever seen. 1896‘H. S. Merriman’ Sowers iv, She..swept him a deep curtsey. 1900H. Sutcliffe Shameless Wayne xii. (1905) 158 He sweeps two blows [of his sword] in for every one of ours.
27. trans. To describe, trace, mark out (a line, esp. a wide curve, or an area); spec. in Shipbuilding: see quots., and cf. sweep n. 16 c.
1664E. Bushnell Compl. Ship-wright iv. 9 Shewing, how to sweepe out the Bend of Moulds upon a Flat. Ibid. vii. 23 To finde the Sweepe..that will round any Beame, or other piece of Timber that is to be Sweept. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. ii. 53 You must have..a pair of Beam-Compasses, for to sweep the Arches. 1725W. Halfpenny Sound Building 1 Open your Compasses.., and setting one Foot in the Point A, with the other sweep the Arch e e. 1805Shipwright's Vade-M. 171 The centre for sweeping the stem..must be set off thus. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sci. (1857) I. 324 The areas described or swept, by lines drawn from the sun to the planet. 1843Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. iii. iii. §8 They..found it much easier to sweep circles than to design beauties. c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 124 In those lines are found the centres for sweeping the lower and upper breadth sweeps. 1909Westm. Gaz. 9 Sept. 4/2 The erection of the main framing from the platform and bottom sides, which is, in coachmakers parlance, also swept to shape.
28. Founding. To form (a mould) with a sweep (sweep n. 31).
1885[Horner] Pattern-making ii. 13 Lay one edge of each sweeped piece on its respective pitch-line. 1909Hawkins' Mech. Dict., Sweep..In founding, to work a loam mould up to the proper outline, by means of profile boards moved over it under mechanical guidance. 1910J. G. Horner in Encycl. Brit. X. 744/1 That group of work in which the sand or loam is ‘swept’ to the form required for the moulds and cores by means of striking boards, loam boards, core boards or strickles. Ibid., These joints also are swept by the boards. Ibid., Its mould also is swept on bricks.
▪ III. sweep, adv. and int.
[The stem of the vb. sweep; cf. bang, crash, dash, etc.]
With a sweeping movement or a swoop.
1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 86 Sweep comes the Kite, and carries away the fattest and hopefullest of all the Brood. 1694Echard Plautus, Epidicus ii. iii, Sweep says my Worship with as much Mony as he pleases. 1756M. Calderwood in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Cl.) 225 Whenever a street makes a turn, sweep go about the houses built upon it, as if it had been turned after they were all set. 1849Cupples Green Hand v, You felt her shoving the long seas aside..then sweep they came after her. |