Definitions for sweep

• Definition
• Anagrams (36)

sweep sweep

Spelling: [sweep]

IPA: /swip/

Sweep is a 5 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 10 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 11 points.

You can make 36 anagrams from letters in sweep (eepsw).

Definitions for sweep

noun

1. the act of sweeping, especially a moving, removing, clearing, etc., by or as if by the use of a broom:
2. the steady, driving motion or swift onward course of something moving with force or without interruption:
3. an examination by electronic detection devices of a room or building to determine the presence of hidden listening devices.
4. a swinging or curving movement or stroke, as of the arm, a weapon, an oar, etc.
5. reach, range, or compass, as of something sweeping about:
6. a continuous extent or stretch:
7. a curving, especially widely or gently curving, line, form, part, or mass.
8. matter removed or gathered by sweeping.
9. Also called well sweep. a leverlike device for raising or lowering a bucket in a well.
10. a large oar used in small vessels, sometimes to assist the rudder or to propel the craft.
11. an overwhelming victory in a contest.
12. a winning of all the games, rounds, hands, prizes, etc., in a contest by one contestant.
13. Football. end run.
14. one of the sails of a windmill.
15. Agriculture. any of the detachable triangular blades on a cultivator.
16. Chiefly British. a person employed to clean by sweeping, especially a chimney sweeper.
17. Cards. Whist. the winning of all the tricks in a hand. Compare slam2 (def 1). Casino. a pairing or combining, and hence taking, of all the cards on the board.
18. Physics. an irreversible process tending towards thermal equilibrium.
19. a sweepstakes.

verb (used with object)

1. to move or remove (dust, dirt, etc.) with or as if with a broom, brush, or the like.
2. to clear or clean (a floor, room, chimney, etc.) of dirt, litter, or the like, by means of a broom or brush.
3. to drive or carry by some steady force, as of a wind or wave:
4. to pass or draw (something) over a surface with a continuous stroke or movement:
5. to make (a path, opening, etc.) by clearing a space with or as if with a broom.
6. to clear (a surface, place, etc.) of something on or in it (often followed by of):
7. to pass over (a surface, region, etc.) with a steady, driving movement or unimpeded course, as winds, floods, etc.:
8. to search (an area or building) thoroughly:
9. to pass the gaze, eyes, etc., over (a region, area, etc.):
10. to direct (the eyes, gaze, etc.) over a region, surface, or the like:
11. to examine electronically, as to search for a hidden listening device.
12. to win a complete or overwhelming victory in (a contest):
13. to win (every game, round, hand, etc., of a series of contests):
14. Music. to pass the fingers or bow over (a musical instrument, its strings or keys, etc.), as in playing. to bring forth (music) thus.

verb (used without object)

1. to sweep a floor, room, etc., with or as if with a broom:
2. to move steadily and strongly or swiftly (usually followed by along, down, by, into, etc.).
3. to move or pass in a swift but stately manner:
4. to move, pass, or extend in a continuous course, especially a wide curve or circuit:
5. to conduct an underwater search by towing a drag under the surface of the water.
6. Aeronautics. (of an airfoil or its leading or trailing edge) to project from the fuselage at an angle rearward or forward of a line perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft.

Origin of sweep

1250-1300; Middle English swepen (v.); compare Old English geswēpa sweepings, derivative of swāpan to sweep (> obsolete English swope); cognate with German schweifen

Examples for sweep

The remains were shipped to Fiji just as the war was about to sweep the region.

The sweep team and the motorcade soon arrived at the United Nations, where Obama delivered an address about climate change.

The “24-hour news cycle” just makes them harder to sweep under the rug and ignore.

Decorative yes, but a daily handbag that will sweep through the closets of women worldwide?

I hauled him in, and he told me, he thought, some one had hold of the other end of the sweep.

The sweep team was leading the way when it came upon an unattended red car parked along the route.

The posters, maculated with filth, garnished like tapestry the sweep of the curbstone.

These form the woods which sweep from rocky shore to topmost hill.

From this position he commanded with his rifle the sweep of hillside all around the cabin.

I have never had to sweep out the schoolhouse since the time you know of.