Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧹 To clean with broom 🌬️ To move smoothly ↩️ A broad movement 🌄 To cover widely 💨 To force suddenly 🏆 To win easily 🧑‍🔧 A chimney cleaner 🏈 A running play 🃏 Win all tricks 🚣 A long oar
sweep

sweep

165 3.5
A wide movement of the hand or arm
  • noun
  • /swiːp/
translation icon : barrido
  • The rescue team conducted a thorough sweep of the entire area to look for survivors.
  • a broad sweep
  • a horizontal sweep
  • a sweep of history

So we're going to perform a short sweep of pieces.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • At the table, Arlene opened the menu with an awed sweep of her hand.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • I want a complete sweep of the entire city and the subway.

    Godzilla (1998)

  • We'll start a sweep of the area.

    C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud (1989)

  • We're gonna need 24 hours to do a full sweep.

    Confess, Fletch (2022)

  • Okay, I'm going to do a sweep of the house.

    Lovely Molly (2011)

  • A castle on a low cliff... a sweep of dark water below.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Wren quit looking at him and concentrated on the sweep of the ocean ahead.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Everything about him was performance: the half-smile, the smooth sweep of the leathered arm.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Thus, there has been made a clean sweep of the men who sat closest in Lenin's counsels.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Data, he ordered, begin a full-scale sensor sweep of the Jaradan city and the surrounding countryside.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

stroke
vssweep
77 3.7

A single hitting or moving action in sports, art and writing

is broader and curving rather than a single precise mark or motion
expanse
vssweep
46 4.6

A wide open area like land or water

is a broad curving movement or range, not a physical open area
swipe
vssweep
39 3.9

A strong sweeping hit with the arm, hand, or paw

is a wide, curving movement or a broad extent, not a quick hit

Idioms

to sweep under the rug
  • Informal
8 7.7

To hide a problem instead of dealing with it openly

Compounds

clean sweep
  • Informal
5 3.6

A full success when someone wins everything or makes a complete change

sweep hand
  • Specialized
1 5.5

A long hand on a watch or clock that shows seconds and moves smoothly

sweep oar
  • Specialized
9.3

A long paddle one person holds with both hands to row a boat

sweep-second
  • Specialized
8.6

A thin hand on a clock or watch attached at the middle that goes around every minute and moves smoothly

How Broad

sweep
165 3.5
to span
  • Specialized
98 3.4
to arc
3 4.4
flick
24 3.0
to twitch
66 2.8

Surface Forms

sweep singular
sweeps plural

Etymology

Sweep as a noun for a wide, curving movement comes from the same idea of a long brush stroke or arm motion. That is why a big gesture or a long stroke of a brush is called a 'sweep'.