Sweep Meaning
/swiːp/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush.
verbTo move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.
Sentence Examples
If each would sweep before the door, we should have a clean city.
You have only to sweep the floor.
I'll sweep the floor while you wash the dishes.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She took the broom and began to ____ the dirty kitchen floor.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I need to ____ the floor in the kitchen after I finish cooking our dinner this evening today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I will sweep it with the besom of destruction."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 14:23:
"[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:
"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:
"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:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She took the broom and began to ____ the dirty kitchen floor.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I need to ____ the floor in the kitchen after I finish cooking our dinner this evening today.