(v. i.) To pass a broom across (a surface) so as to remove loose dirt, dust, etc.; to brush, or rub over, with a broom for the purpose of cleaning; as, to sweep a floor, the street, or a chimney. Used also figuratively.
(v. i.) To drive or carry along or off with a broom or a brush, or as if with a broom; to remove by, or as if by, brushing; as, to sweep dirt from a floor; the wind sweeps the snow from the hills; a freshet sweeps away a dam, timber, or rubbish; a pestilence sweeps off multitudes.
(v. i.) To brush against or over; to rub lightly along.
(v. i.) To carry with a long, swinging, or dragging motion; hence, to carry in a stately or proud fashion.
(v. i.) To strike with a long stroke.
(v. i.) To draw or drag something over; as, to sweep the bottom of a river with a net.
(v. i.) To pass over, or traverse, with the eye or with an instrument of observation; as, to sweep the heavens with a telescope.
(v. i.) To clean rooms, yards, etc., or to clear away dust, dirt, litter, etc., with a broom, brush, or the like.
(v. i.) To brush swiftly over the surface of anything; to pass with switness and force, as if brushing the surface of anything; to move in a stately manner; as, the wind sweeps across the plain; a woman sweeps through a drawing-room.
(v. i.) To pass over anything comprehensively; to range through with rapidity; as, his eye sweeps through space.
(n.) The act of sweeping.
(n.) The compass or range of a stroke; as, a long sweep.
(n.) The compass of any turning body or of any motion; as, the sweep of a door; the sweep of the eye.
(n.) The compass of anything flowing or brushing; as, the flood carried away everything within its sweep.
(n.) Violent and general destruction; as, the sweep of an epidemic disease.
(n.) Direction and extent of any motion not rectlinear; as, the sweep of a compass.
(n.) Direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, or the like, away from a rectlinear line.
(n.) One who sweeps; a sweeper; specifically, a chimney sweeper.
(n.) A movable templet for making molds, in loam molding.
(n.) The mold of a ship when she begins to curve in at the rungheads; any part of a ship shaped in a segment of a circle.
(n.) A large oar used in small vessels, partly to propel them and partly to steer them.
(n.) The almond furnace.
(n.) 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.
(n.) In the game of casino, a pairing or combining of all the cards on the board, and so removing them all; in whist, the winning of all the tricks (thirteen) in a hand; a slam.
(n.) The sweeping of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc.
Example Sentences:
(1) Now, as the Senate takes up a weakened House bill along with the House's strengthened backdoor-proof amendment, it's time to put focus back on sweeping reform.
(2) One man has died in storms sweeping across the UK that have brought 100-mile-an-hour winds and led to more than 50 flood warnings being issued with widespread disruption on the road and rail networks in much of southern England and Scotland.
(3) That’s a criticism echoed by Democrats in the Senate, who issued a report earlier this month criticising Republicans for passing sweeping legislation in July to combat addiction , the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (Cara), but refusing to fund it.
(4) he asked in a low voice, referring to the Sunni insurgents sweeping across northern Iraq .
(5) The Florida senator on Wednesday signed on to legislation that would delay the implementation of the sweeping surveillance reforms passed by Congress under the USA Freedom Act.
(6) The building blocks were laid out in a sweeping document presented by Van Rompuy and colleagues earlier this week that included sharing debt in the form of jointly issued eurobonds.
(7) For once, however, Beckham's timing was out, and his tenure has seen the club win nothing, and a new regime led by austere Italian Fabio Capello sweep away the superstar culture.
(8) Behind the broad sweep of pessimism, it is worth thinking about how the "eurozone in crisis" story could eventually improve.
(9) As fighter jets screamed overhead and tanks churned up the sand, it looked and sounded like the violent protests sweeping the Middle East had spread to the wealthy emirate of Abu Dhabi.
(10) Compulsory national testing for four- and five-year-olds in England from 2016 is to be introduced as part of sweeping changes being proposed to early years and primary education.
(11) In addition, the sine-sweep responses show quite different frequency characteristics in respect of depolarization and repolarization.
(12) The sweeping proposals are a sizeable step up in scale and urgency for a mayor who has for years emphasised the threat climate change poses to the city, which has 520 miles of coastline.
(13) Blinded by a series of sweeping victories, he forgot that the public saw in him not only stability, but also a hope for decentralisation and redistribution of power.
(14) In post-spike averages of 1000-10,000 sweeps, no evidence of reflex excitation of the homonymous motoneurone pool was detected.
(15) In 11 cases, barium examination of the upper gastrointestinal tract revealed prominent filling defects in the duodenal bulb and the duodenal sweep.
(16) Tom Tobler, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "Gusts of 50mph to 60mph are sweeping across south-west England, central England and Wales, which will see the worst of the windy weather.
(17) Three US senators announced bills on Thursday that proposed the most sweeping structural changes to the secret court that oversees the legal basis for surveillance activities since it was set up 35 years ago.
(18) A "sweep" bend was incorporated to avoid unwanted side effects at the second premolar.
(19) However, the military remains unable to shift Isis from its strongholds or reverse the gains the group made during a stunning sweep through Mosul and Tikrit that continues to pose a grave threat to Iraq's borders.
(20) She may have her own reasons, but if this view takes hold, it will have sweeping implications.
Swoop
Definition:
(n.) To fall on at once and seize; to catch while on the wing; as, a hawk swoops a chicken.
(n.) To seize; to catch up; to take with a sweep.
(v. i.) To descend with closed wings from a height upon prey, as a hawk; to swoop.
(v. i.) To pass with pomp; to sweep.
(n.) A falling on and seizing, as the prey of a rapacious bird; the act of swooping.
Example Sentences:
(1) Then Obama himself swooped in with a big bear hug around Giffords's tiny frame, grinning widely before climbing to the rostrum for the speech.
(2) Latvian aeroplanes were scrambled five times in 2010; in 2014 that figure was over a hundred, as Russian planes swooped into Baltic airspace.
(3) Osborne's swoop comes on the eve of a heavily anticipated major speech by Ed Miliband on the economy in which he will call for limits on the size of high street banks.
(4) Tim Goldsmith, global mining leader at PwC, believes that amid the current market volatility, companies that are flush with cash will swoop on smaller players, which are more vulnerable to market fluctuations and have difficulty raising capital.
(5) But the spectacularly successful Sri Lanka-born philanthropist built his fortune through lies, according to federal agents who swooped on him for insider trading in New York yesterday.
(6) Yodobashi-Akiba is ideal for shoppers who want to pick up games, electronics and cameras in one fell-swoop.
(7) So it is little surprise that a campaign, led by orators as persuasive as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, promising to address all these anxieties in one fell geostrategic swoop, should be gaining in popularity.
(8) And that voice like a whip-crack: impish, transgressive, swooping from a mutter to a scream.
(9) The commission said the Belgians forgot to warn the Greek authorities that they were about to swoop until half an hour before the raids.
(10) He was killed as armed police swooped and foiled an attempt to free Izzet Eren as he was being transported from Wormwood Scrubs prison to Wood Green crown court on 11 December.
(11) Since swooping for the Premier League rights last year (fending off the incumbent partnership of ESPN and Fox, as well as a large bid from the Al Jazeera owned beIN Sports channel) NBC have been aggressively promoting the thoroughness of their coverage, which offers subscribers to their sports network channel NBCSN an additional range of channels showing every game live.
(12) The Department for International Development and the Treasury must do more to make sure that their investment in the Horn of Africa is not undone in one fell swoop.
(13) With it would come “the Mother of Planes, which would hover over space for up to a year and then swoop down to rescue righteous black Muslims from the great white wasteland”.
(14) They will make promises and they won’t fulfil them.” Dozens of people were left homeless in 2012 after Lagos authorities swooped and demolished houses and other illegal structures.
(15) On stage 1, the first hill that might split the peloton is Buttertubs Pass, now restyled as Côte de Buttertubs, which rises up out of Hawes in North Yorkshire and swoops down into the gorgeous Swaledale valley.
(16) He created his own title sequence for the new series of Doctor Who , complete with Peter Capaldi, a spinning Tardis, intergalactic vistas, and an eye-catching swoop through the gears of a clock.
(17) Nonetheless, police with dogs swooped on the pub and ordered the supporters on to a coach back to Stoke.
(18) The IRC primarily swoops into the newest crisis zone within 72 hours to deliver medical care and supplies to refugees, before helping them resettle or rebuild.
(19) It’s not going to happen in one fell swoop since there are huge interests and jobs at stake, with livelihoods depending on this industry.
(20) Good-looking and apparently fearless, he would swoop in to visit German troops in Afghanistan looking like an extra from Top Gun in aviator shades, flight suit and desert boots.