1. One whose business it is to sweep chimneys, in order to remove the soot.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorell’s B. (1843), 11. Chymney swepers, and costerde mongers.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 266. To look like her are Chimny-sweepers blacke.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, IV. 198. A Chimny-sweeper, with his Brooms, his Poles and Shackles.
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 360. Dressed … like … English chimney-sweepers on May-day.
b. Chimney-sweeper’s cancer: ‘epithelioma of the scrotum, caused by the irritation of soot’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
2. A stiff radiating brush fixed on a long jointed rod, used for cleaning chimneys; a sweep’s brush.
(Introduced in 1805 to supersede the use of climbing boys.)
3. Collector’s name for a small black British moth (Tanagra chærophyllata).
So Chimney-sweeping vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 38. Such chimnie sweeping attributes of smoking and parching.
1650. Venner, Tobacco, 412. Attended with Chimney-sweeping Lackeys.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, First of May. Chimney-sweeping had become a favorite … pursuit.
