sweep hand
1
5.5
- noun
- Specialized
:
manecilla de segundos
- As the meeting continued, I glanced at the sweep hand to see how much time had passed.
Examples
-
The ECU sweep hand of a dive watch clicks through the seconds.
Fiction book (1991) -
The sweep hand approaches the twelve.
Fiction book (1991) -
The sweep hand moved smoothly around the clock face, marking each second.
-
The sweep hand of the watch ticked effortlessly, indicating each passing second.
Synonyms
6
2.6
The hand on a clock that shows seconds
A thin hand on a clock or watch attached at the middle that goes around every minute and moves smoothly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'sweep' (to move smoothly in a gliding motion) plus 'hand' (a clock pointer) yields 'the hand that sweeps' — i.e., the pointer that moves smoothly around the dial (seconds hand). This descriptive noun–noun combination follows straightforward English compounding and is likely inferable by a B1 learner who knows both constituent meanings.
Etymology
Sweep hand comes from the picture of the long clock hand moving in a sweep across the clock face like a broom, making a smooth motion instead of jumping. That's why sweep hand means the long hand that shows the 'seconds' as it moves smoothly.