Sweep sb.

Forms: 6 swiepe, 6–7 sweepe, sweape, 7 swepe, 7–8 sweap, 7– sweep. [Mainly f. SWEEP v. In senses 25, 27, app. a local variant of SWAPE, q.v.]

  I.  The action of sweeping.

  1.  An act of sweeping or clearing up or (usually) away; a clearance: freq. a general, (now) a clean sweep.

1552.  in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. xvi. 293. Thynkyng … this Hospital should haue made a generall swiepe of all poore and afflicted.

1712.  Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 1 July. Here has been a great sweep of employments, and we expect still more removals. Ibid. (1720), Run on Bankers, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 22. The bold encroachers on the deep Gain by degrees huge tracts of land, Till Neptune with one gen’ral sweep Turns all again to barren strand.

1801.  T. Jefferson, Writ. (ed. Ford), VIII. 64. In Connecticut alone a general sweep seems to be called for.

1848.  Clough, Amours de Voy., I. 24. Would to Heaven the old Goths had made a cleaner sweep of it!

1868.  Milman, St. Paul’s, 229. To make the last remorseless sweep of these riches.

1869.  Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 144. A clean sweep had been made of all the beasts of burden in the neighbouring districts.

1889.  Jessopp, Coming of Friars, v. 236. There had been a clean sweep of the old incumbents from all the parishes for miles round.

  b.  An act of passing over an area in order to capture or destroy the occupants of it.

1837.  W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 186. [They] had taken the lead, and hoped to have the first sweep of the hunting ground.

1889.  19th Cent., Nov., 758. The hopes that the few remaining hundreds of the aborigines might be captured in one sweep.

1916.  Edin. Rev., July, 172. The Grand Fleet had been engaged in carrying out one of those frequent ‘sweeps’ of the North Sea on which it has been employed for months in order to find the enemy.

  c.  At one or a sweep: with a single blow or stroke.

1834.  L. Ritchie, Wand. Seine, 96. Seventeen persons were drowned by the bar at one sweep.

1870.  Burton, Hist. Scot. (1873), VI. lxxii. 256. The Tables resolved to take them at one sweep out of the hands of the Government.

1877.  Daily News, 25 Oct., 5/4. If the best mines are liable to explosion, killing hundreds of men at a sweep.

  2.  The action of a person or animal moving along with a continuous motion, esp. with a magnificent or impressive air. Also with advs., as sweep-by, sweep-past.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. ii. 137. What a sweepe of vanitie comes this way.

1775.  Mme. D’Arblay, Lett., in Early Diary, Nov. Nothing could be more noble than her entrance. She took a sweep from the full length of the stage.

1827.  Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 57. Private carriages … draw up to the box door with a vigorous sweep.

1856.  Mrs. Marsh, Ev. Marston, xviii. II. 93. The stillness being only broken by … the noiseless sweep by of the large white owl.

1895.  Snaith, Mistr. D. Marvin, vi. She cantered him [sc. a horse] gently to the far end of the yard to give him a good sweep for the spring.

  3.  The rapid or forcible and continuous movement of a body of water, wind, etc.

1708.  J. Philips, Cyder, II. 83. A Torrent swell’d With wintry Tempests, that disdains all Mounds,… and involves Within its Sweep, Trees, Houses, Men.

1754.  Gray, Pleasure, 59. With resistless sweep They perish in the boundless deep.

1801.  Southey, Thalaba, VIII. viii. The wind Swept through the moonless sky,… And in the pauses of its sweep They heard the heavy rain Beat on the monument above.

1821.  Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 76. The river pours Its guggling sounds in whirling sweep.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. vi. Brawny Danton is in the breach … amid the sweep of Tenth-of-August cannon.

1898.  Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.), Oct., 298. To anchor at some distance off-shore, exposed to the full sweep of the long rollers.

  b.  semi-concr. of a forcibly moving body of water.

1815.  Shelley, Alastor, 362. Suspended on the sweep of the smooth wave, The little boat was driven.

1864.  Tennyson, En. Ard., 55. He thrice had pluck’d a life From the dread sweep of the down-streaming seas.

1867.  Augusta Wilson, Vashti, xxvii. He might as well have attempted to catch … in the hollow of his hand the steady sweep of Niagara.

  4.  An action, or a process in expression, thought, etc., figured as movement of this kind.

1662.  Graunt, Bills of Mortality, ii. 16. In Countries subject to great Epidemical sweeps men may live very long.

1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit. (Bohn), 272. It was easy to excuse some inaccuracy in the final sounds if the general sweep of the verse was superior.

1840.  De Quincey, Style, I. Wks. (1860), 164. Whatever sweep is impressed by chance upon the motion of a period.

1842.  Tennyson, Epic, 14. I heard the parson taking wide and wider sweeps.

1858.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VII. ix. (1872), II. 340. The first sweep of royal fury being past.

1872.  Morley, Voltaire, i. (1886), 1. As if the work had been wholly done … by the sweep of deep-lying, collective forces.

  5.  The action of driving or wielding a tool or weapon, swinging an arm, etc., so as to describe a circle or an arc.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., VII. 419. Justly tim’d with equal sweep they row.

1831.  Scott, Cast. Dang., iii. The sweep of a brown bill.

1849.  G. P. R. James, Woodman, iii. The woodman had pulled his axe from his belt, and with a full sweep of his arm struck a blow.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., lxxxix. The sweep of scythe in morning dew.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., vi. The long steady sweep of the so-called paddle tried him.

1890.  R. Bridges, Windmill, ii. Its hurtling sails a mighty sweep Cut thro’ the air.

  6.  The action of moving in a continuous curve or a more or less circular path or track: said, e.g., of the movements of an army or a fleet, the turn of a river’s course; † formerly also of the rotation or revolution of a body; occas. a single revolution.

1679.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., ix. 166. A Door is said to Drag when … the bottom edge of the Door rides (in its sweep) upon the Floor. Ibid. (1680), xiii. 220 (Turning Hard Wood). They lay their Tool flat and steddy upon the Rest; which being hard held in this position, does by the coming about of the Work, cut or tear off all the Extuberances the Tool touches in the sweep of the Work…. For should it in one sweep of the Work be thrust nearer the Axis in any place, it would there take off more than it should.

1780.  J. Adams, in Fam. Lett. (1876), 386. The French and Spanish fleets have made a sweep of sixty upon the English East India and West India fleets.

1798.  S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 441. Taking suddenly, a bold sweep, the stream smoothed … ere it discharged itself into the sea.

1821.  Craig, Lect. Drawing, etc., v. 284. The species of sweep, curve, or twist, which the branches take in diverging from the trunk.

1869.  Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. D 5. The top of the jib, and consequently the forked hanger suspended from it … make a sweep from side to side in front of the furnace.

a. 1900.  S. Crane, Gt. Battles (1901), 15. The sweep of the Allies under Graham around the French right.

1914.  Times, 12 Sept., 8/3. When the enemy’s sweep to the south-east of Paris was checked on the Grand Morin.

  † b.  The course (of a river). Obs. rare.

1596.  Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (ed. 2), 259. Neither of them standeth in the full sweepe, or right course, of those Riuers, but in a diuerticle, or by way.

  c.  Gunnery. The lateral movement of a gun in distributing fire over a given front.

1907.  Bethell, Mod. Guns & Gunnery, 172. If we multiply the front of the target in degrees by 10, this will give the outward deflection and sweep required in minutes.

  7.  Astr. A term used by Sir William Herschel to denote a method of surveying the heavens in sections (see quots. and cf. SWEEP v. 21); also, one of such sections of observation. Rarely gen. the survey of an extensive region.

1784.  Sir W. Herschel, Sci. Papers (1912) I. 165. It occurred to me that the intermediate spaces between the sweeps might also contain nebulæ. Ibid. (1786), 261 The instrument was … either lowered or raised about 8 or 10 minutes, and another oscillation was then performed like the first. Thus I continued generally for about 10, 20, or 30 oscillations,… and the whole of it was then called a Sweep.

1841.  Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 45. 172. A rich apparatus fitted alike for the wide sweep of celestial scenery, and the strictest scrutiny of a terrestrial atom.

1867.  G. F. Chambers, Astron. (1876), 920. Sweep, sweeping, terms introduced by Sir W. Herschel to describe his practice of surveying the heavens by clamping his telescope in successive parallels of declination, and allowing during a series of equal intervals of time, portions of the sky to pass under view by diurnal motion.

  8.  An act of sweeping with a broom.

  Also with advs.: e.g., to give a room a good sweep, sweep-out, or sweep-up.

1818.  Scott, Br. Lamm., xv, When his [sc. a spider’s] whole web … is destroyed by the chance sweep of a broom.

1908.  Contemp. Rev., Feb., 155. I have known outdoor paupers who … would let their rooms go for the month without ever a single ‘sweep-up.’

  9.  The action of a garment, etc., brushing, or of the hand or an instrument passing in continuous movement, along or over a surface.

1820.  Shelley, Sensit. Pl., II. 27. Wherever her aëry footstep trod, Her trailing hair from the grassy sod Erased its light vestige, with shadowy sweep.

1855.  Browning, Fra Lippo, 52. A sweep of lute-strings.

1856.  Miss Warner, Hills Shatemuc, xl. The old man’s brush made long sweeps back and forward over the shining gunwale.

1863.  Geo. Eliot, Romola, xliii. The tramp of footsteps, and the faint sweep of woollen garments.

1893.  J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 59. The developer is now poured, with a gentle sweep, over the plate.

  10.  Cards. a. In the game of casino, a pairing or combining all the cards on the board, resulting in the removal of all of them. b. In whist, the winning of all the tricks in a hand; a slam.

1814.  Hoyle’s Games Improved, 161 (Cassino). Do not neglect sweeping the board when opportunity offers; always prefer taking up the card laid down by the opponent, also as many as possible with one; endeavouring likewise to win the last cards or final sweep.

1879.  in Webster, Suppl.

  11.  Physics. A process of settling, or tending to settle, into thermal equilibrium.

1903.  W. S. Franklin, in Science, 20 Nov., 647/2. The settling of a closed system to thermal equilibrium is called a simple sweep.

  II.  Range, extent.

  12.  Compass, reach, or range of movement, esp. in a circular or curving course.

1679.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., ix. 159. If the Boards of the Floor chance to swell within the sweep of the Door. Ibid. (1680), x. 184. The Sweep of the Treddle being so small.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., II. xi. 251. The whole sweep of our squadron, within which nothing could pass undiscovered, was at least twenty-four leagues in extent.

1779.  J. Moore, View Soc. Fr. (1789), I. xix. 154. All within one sweep of the eye.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., v. (1856), 38. In our wake, and just outside the sweep of our oars.

1861.  Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., II. 158. From the minutest disclosures of the microscope to beyond the farthest sweep of the telescope.

1878.  Conder, Tentwork Pal., I. viii. 242. Huge camels, loaded with firewood, come rolling by, and oblige you to crouch against the wall to avoid the sweep of the load.

1886.  Field, 20 March, 353/1. The fishermen waiting till they see a salmon show within the sweep of the net.

  13.  Extent of ground, water, etc.; an extent, stretch, or expanse, such as can be taken in at one survey or is included in a wide-spreading curve.

1767.  Jago, Edge-hill, II. 92. The Lawns, With spacious Sweep, and wild Declivity.

1791.  W. Gilpin, Forest Scenery, II. 49. It’s woody scenes, it’s extended lawns, and vast sweeps of wild country.

1842.  Tennyson, Audley Crt., 12. By many a sweep of meadow smooth from aftermath.

1856.  Stanley, Sinai & Pal., ii. 128. The whole sweep of mountains which enclose the western plains of Asia.

1871.  L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), v. 131. So noble and varied a sweep of glacier is visible nowhere else in the Alps.

1885.  Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines (1889), 35. A lovely coast … with its red sandhills and wide sweeps of vivid green.

1906.  Sir F. Treves, Highways Dorset, xii. 192. A long sickle-shaped sweep of fawn-coloured sand.

  b.  A series (of buildings); † a suite (of rooms).

1751.  Smollett, Per. Pickle, cv. The rooms were every way suitable,… and our hero imagined they had made a tour through the whole sweep, [etc.].

1772.  T. Nugent, trans. Grosley’s Tour Lond., I. 348. The apartment of the first story, consisting of a sweep of seven chambers.

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872), I. 42. A sweep of shops … and all manner of open-air dealers.

  14.  Extent or range of thought, observation, experience, influence, power, etc.

1781.  Cowper, Table-T., 474. Tyranny sends the chain, that must abridge The noble sweep of all their privilege.

1839.  Hallam, Lit. Eur., III. vi. § 87. He wanted that large sweep of reflection and experience which is required for the greater diversity of the other sex.

1855.  Edin. Rev., July, 296. The extensive sweep of these four great principles did not escape the penetration of Russia.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., viii. § 5. 501. London … was brought within the sweep of Royal extortion.

1877.  C. Geikie, Christ, i. I. 5. [Christ] threw down the wall of separation, and consecrated the whole sweep of existence.

  III.  A curve or curved object, etc.

  15.  A curved line or form; a curve; also, curvature.

1715.  Desaguliers, Fires Impr., 85. The Model, by means of which the Workman may give Chimneys that Sweep or Curvature which they ought to have.

1731.  W. Halfpenny, Perspective, 27. Take OC, strike a sweep towards B; from B, draw a Line to I.

1739.  S. Sharp, Treat. Surgery, x. 51. Having made one Incision … a little circularly, begin a second in the same Point as the first, bringing it with an opposite Sweep to meet the other.

1804.  C. B. Brown, trans. Volney’s View Soil U.S., 91. An extensive meadow, through which the St. Laurence flows, in three sweeps or bends.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 637. Glass can be bent to circular sweeps.

1855.  Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 150. A soft rock … has been scooped out into sweeps and rounded surfaces.

1881.  Young, Ev. Man his own Mechanic, § 38. It admits of being bent almost double without snapping and on that account it is well adapted to be used for curved work if the sweep be not too small.

  b.  The continuously curved part of an arch.

1685.  Dryden, Albion & Albanus, Frontispiece c j. On the sweep of the Arch lies one of the Muses.

1721.  Bailey, Key-Stone … is the middle Stone of an Arch, to bind the Sweeps of the Arch together.

1835.  J. Greenwood, Tour Thornton Abbey, 36. A pointed window of three lights, with perpendicular tracery in the sweep.

  † c.  Shipbuilding. An arc or curved line used in a plan to indicate the shape of the timbers; the curve of a ship’s timbers. Obs.

1627.  Capt. J. Smith, Sea. Gram., ii. 3. Those ground timbers doe giue the floore of the ship, being straight, sauing at the ends they begin to compasse, and there they are called the Rungheads, and doth direct the Sweepe or Mould of the Foot-hookes and Nauell timbers.

a. 1647.  Pette, in Archaeologia, XII. 248. The great platform,… where all the lines of the midship bend were drawn … with their centres, perpendiculars, and sweeps.

1664.  Bushnell, Compl. Ship-Wright, 14. Here in this Draught I draw a Sweepe, or a piece of a Circle from the point G. Ibid., 15. Then make the Moulds by their Sweepes.

1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., The Seamen call the Mold of a Ship when she begins to compass in at the Rungheads, the Sweep of her; or the Sweep of the Futtocks.

1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 378/2 (Shipbuilding). A frame of timbers is commonly formed by arches of circles called sweeps. There are generally five sweeps,… the floor sweep … the lower breadth sweep … the reconciling sweep … the upper breadth sweep … the top timber sweep.

  d.  A flowing line (of drapery, hair, the contour of a limb, etc.); also semi-concr.

1784.  Cowper, Task, I. 352. Well-roll’d walks, With curvature of slow and easy sweep.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., x. That graceful and easy sweep of outline which at once indicates health and beautiful proportion of parts. Ibid. (1823), Quentin D., xiii. The dark and downward sweep of his long-descending beard.

1858.  Kingsley, Misc., My Winter-Garden (1859), I. 153. See the depth of chest, the sweep of loin.

1868.  Helps, Realmah, viii. (1876), 214. She trails after her in the muddy streets an ample sweep of flowing drapery.

1890.  Atlantic Monthly, March, 353/2. Deep, wistful gray eyes, under a sweep of brown hair that fell across his forehead.

1894.  Crockett, Raiders, v. Narrow tongues of fire and great sweeps of smoke drove to leeward.

  e.  A projecting contour or face of a wall, column, etc.

1726.  Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., II. 20. The Sweeps are two, at the top and the other at the bottom of the Column, and are called Sweeps upon account of their running out a little beyond the rest of the Shaft.

1731.  Gentl. Mag., Nov., 488/1. The Descent formerly craggy … is now firm,… by 17 Traverses, the Sweeps and Angles wall’d with Stones.

1816.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 146. The shafts do not in this style generally stand free, but are parts of the sweep of mouldings.

  16.  Concrete uses.

  a.  A curved mass of building or masonry.

1766.  Entick, London, IV. 414. The pillars are terminated to the east by a sweep,… in a kind of semicircle.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 87. A curved wall or sweep of masonry, which is made concentric with the wheel.

1859.  Dickens, Tale Two Cities, II. ix. Two stone sweeps of staircase meeting in a stone terrace before the principal door.

  b.  ‘A semicircular plank fixed up under the beams near the fore-end of the tiller, which it supports’ (Rudim. Navig., c. 1850); a similar support on which a gun travels.

1756.  Gentl. Mag., Jan., 15/1. The tiller … having born so hard upon the sweep as almost to have worn it through.

1837.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 28/1. Her armament … consists of 14 long 32-pounders, and two 84-pounders on circular sweeps.

  c.  A curved carriage drive leading to a house.

1797.  Jane Austen, Sense & Sens., III. xiv. (1811), 326. They could superintend the progress of the parsonage … could choose papers, project shrubberies, and invent a sweep.

1838.  Lytton, Alice, I. ix. The narrow sweep that conducted from the lodge to the house.

1897.  Stevenson, St. Ives, xii. The lane twisted … and showed me a gate and the beginning of a gravel sweep.

  d.  In pattern-making, a short segment of a circle used in making a ring, being shifted round on its center several times in succession until the ring is completed.

1885.  [Horner], Pattern Making, 82. The sweep, with its bosses and prints, is rammed up in sand level with its top face, and withdrawn. It is then carried round exactly one-sixth of its circumference, and its right-hand print and boss is dropping into the impression just made by its left-hand print and boss. There the sweep is again rammed up, to be again withdrawn and removed, until the ring, with its six bosses and six prints is completed.

  IV.  That which is swept up.

  † 17.  The crop of hay raised from a meadow. Obs. local.

1672.  Manley, Cowell’s Interpr., Swepage, is the Crop of Hay got in a Meadow, called also The swepe in some parts of England [referring to Coke, On Litt., fol. 4: see SWEEPAGE 2.]

  18.  coll. sing. or pl. The sweepings of gold and silver dust from the workshops of goldsmiths, silversmiths, etc.

a. 1771.  H. Pemberton, Course Chem., 282. Our refiners have an operation something similar to this, which they call melting their sweep.

1778.  Pryce, Min. Cornub., 246. The inhabitants of Africa … dress their Gold-dust in small bowls, after the manner that Gold-smiths wash their sweeps.

1852.  Househ. Words, V. 275/2. A lot of ‘good handy sweeps’!

1884.  in Standard, 4 Jan., 2/5. They were blockers, and had to remove the gold waste from the books … that were being gilt. That was called ‘sweep.’

  19.  = SWEEPSTAKE 3.

1849.  Bentley’s Misc., XXVI. 573. The public house wherein the ‘sweep’ is got up so philanthropically.

1888.  Kipling, Departm. Ditties, Maxims of Hafiz, xii. The gold that we spend On a Derby Sweep.

  20.  That which is swept up, in, along, etc.

1838.  G. P. R. James, Robber, vi. He thought it would be a good sweep for us all, if we could get the bags.

1873.  Tristram, Moab, xi. 196. The sweep of sediment which comes down with the floods.

1893.  Daily News, 25 Dec., 2/1. This gathering is not a mere sweep in from the streets.

  21.  = ALMOND-FURNACE.

  After G. gekrätzofen, lit. sweepings-furnace.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey).

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., The Almond-Furnace, called also the Sweep, is usually six Foot high, four wide, and two thick.

  V.  Apparatus that sweeps or has a sweeping motion.

  † 22.  A broom or mop: in oven-swepe. Obs.

c. 1475.  Promp. Parv. (Phillipps MS.), 323/2. Ouen swepe, dossorium, tersorium.

  23.  An apparatus for drawing water from a well, consisting of a long pole attached to an upright which serves as a fulcrum; hence, a pump-handle.

1548.  Elyot, Telo,… a great poste and high is set faste, then ouer it cometh a longe beame, whiche renneth on a pynne, so that the one ende hauyng more poyse then the other, causeth the lighter ende to rise; with suche beere brewers in London dooe drawe vp water, thei call it a sweepe.

1598.  Florio, Toleone, Tolleone, an engine to draw vp water, called a sweepe.

1660.  R. D’acres, Water-drawing, II. i. 11. Those that are moved to and fro, men cannot so well command with that free and full strength, as they may the perpendicular sweaps which move up and down.

1747.  Hooson, Miner’s Dict., Q ij. Those common Pumps used in the Mines, such as Raggs, Churns, Sweaps, Forces.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 105. Mr. Smeaton always used such sweeps,… it is certainly preferable to any intricate work in the form of the buckets.

1896.  Howells, Impressions & Exp., 257. The boatmen smoked on the gunwales or indolently plied the long sweeps of their pumps.

1913.  Blackw. Mag., Sept., 324/1. Wells with the old-fashioned ‘sweep.’

  † 24.  A ballista. Obs. (exc. Her.).

1598.  Florio, Telone, an instrument of warre like that which brewers vse with a crosse beame to drawe water, it is called a sweepe.

1661.  Morgan, Sph. Gentry, II. viii. 104. Argent a Sweep azure, charged with a Stone Or, [borne] by the name of Magnall.

[1892.  Woodward & Burnett, Her., 365.]

  25.  Applied to various kinds of levers, or to a long bar that is swept round so as to turn a shaft.

1657.  R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 89. The Horses and Cattle being put to their tackle, they go about, and by their force turne (by the sweeps) the middle roller.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xxi. (Roxb.), 267/1. The Sweep and String, is the moveing beame … which hanging by the middle … so that drawing the end down, by the tradle; the other end riseth, and with it string draws vp the Leaded Hammer.

1763.  Museum Rust., I. lxi. 259. F, is the sweep, whereby the cutter plays up and down when in use.

1799.  A. Young, Agric. Linc., 152. Two sweeps annexed to the wheels, and going the circle with them.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Sweep … the lever of a horse-power or pug-mill.

1884.  C. T. Davis, Manuf. Bricks, etc., v. (1889), 144. Broad, curved pieces of iron, called sweeps, pressers, or pushers,… their use is to force the tempered clay through an opening near the bottom, in the side of the cylinder or box inclosing the pug-mill.

  26.  A sail of a windmill. Also occas. a paddle of a water-wheel.

1702.  W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, xxxii. 124. Several Wind-Mills … The Sweeps whereof are more Numerous than ours are.

1731.  Gentl. Mag., I. 221/2. As Mr. Richards … was viewing a Windmill by Bow, the Sweeps turning of a sudden dash’d out his Brains.

1741.  J. Taylor, Patent Specif., No. 576. Every one of these sweeps is a thin board or plate of such wedth and depth as fit the wedth and depth of the box exactly.

1836.  Preston Cronicle, 2 April, 2/2. Miss P. incautiously ventured out on the platform or gallery, and received two violent blows from the sweeps of the mill, which stunned her and broke her collar bone in two places.

  27.  A long oar used to propel a ship, barge, etc., when becalmed, or to assist the work of steering.

1800.  Asiat. Ann. Reg., Misc. Tr., 223/1. These vessels should … be so constructed as to be rowed by sweeps (or large oars) in calm weather.

1833.  M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xv. (1842), 377. The wind died away altogether—and ‘out sweeps’ was the word.

1890.  Hosie, Three Yrs. W. China, 68. Our craft, guided by stern and bow sweeps, dashed four and five feet at a bound.

1892.  W. Pike, North. Canada, 6. The boats are steered with a huge sweep passed through a ring in the stern post.

1894.  C. N. Robinson, Brit. Fleet, 204. Sweeps, or long pulling oars … were also furnished to every vessel.

  28.  A plate, frame, or the like for sweeping off, up (etc.), grain, soil, etc.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 449. The sweep, making part of the inner rake, occasionally let down for sweeping off all the seed.

  29.  A length of cable used for sweeping the bottom of the sea, in mine-laying, etc.

1775.  Falck, Day’s Diving Vessel, 49. When a cable … is used in its full length, without making it into any particular form, it is generally called in this operation a sweep.

1904.  Daily Chron., 20 Nov., 8/1. The ‘sweep,’ which consists of a surface line 20 fathoms, or 120 feet long, carrying under-water charges of guncotton.

  30.  An instrument used for drawing curves at a large radius, a beam-compass. Also, a profile tool for cutting moldings in wood or metal in a lathe.

1680.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., xiii. 226. I placed the Center-point of the Sweep in a Center-hole made in a square Stud of Mettal…. I provided a strong Iron Bar for the Beam of a Sweep.

1711.  W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 77. The instruments which we term Sweeps, to mark out the Curves that compose the Body.

1847.  Halliwell, Sweep.… (3) An instrument used by turners for making mouldings in wood or metal.

  31.  Founding. A movable templet used in loam-molding, a striking-board.

1854.  in Webster.

  VI.  One who sweeps (and derived senses).

  32.  A chimney-sweeper.

  Prob. taken from the chimney-sweeper’s street cry ‘Sweep!’ as CHIMNEY-SWEEP (1614 Chapman in Chris. Brooke’s Poems, ed. Grosart, 50) was from the earlier cry ‘Chimney sweep!’ See also sweep-chimney (s.v. SWEEP- 2) and SWEEPY sb.

1812.  H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Archit. Atoms. A mingled noise of dustmen, milk, and sweeps.

1827.  Hood, Bianca’s Dream, 108. In skin as sooty as a sweep.

1861.  E. T. Holland, in Peaks, Passes, & Glaciers, Ser. II. I. 91. The small black particles filled our eyes,… and our faces soon became almost as black as sweeps.

  Phr.  1842.  Lover, Handy Andy, i. 8. That peculiar pace which is elegantly called a sweep’s trot.

1878.  Walsham, Surg. Pathol., xiii. 369. From the great frequency with which it occurs in chimney-sweepers, cancer of the scrotum is generally designated the soot- or sweep’s-cancer.

  b.  The Sweeps: a nickname for the Rifle Brigade.

1879.  All Year Round, 5 April, 371/2. The Sweeps and the Jollies—the active and intrepid lads of the Rifle Brigade and the Marine Light Infantry.

1888.  Nicknames in Army, 112. Rifle Brigade.—‘The Sweeps,’ from its dark coloured uniform and facings.

  c.  A disreputable person; a scamp, blackguard. slang and dial.

1853.  Househ. Words, VIII. 75/2. A low person is a snob, a sweep, and a scurf.

1888.  W. E. Norris, Chris, vi. Fancy making up to a drunken sweep like that just because he has a few thousands a year!

1903.  Farmer & Henley, Slang, Sweep … A term of contempt: e.g. ‘What a sweep the man is’: ‘You dirty sweep.’

  d.  Name for two Australasian marine fishes, Scorpis æquipennis and Incisidens simplex.

1840.  F. D. Bennett, Whaling Voy., I. 23. They were chiefly of the kinds known as ‘rock-cod,’ ‘snappers,’ or gilt-heads, ‘sweeps,’ and ‘rudder-fish,’ or scad.

1883.  E. P. Ramsay, Food Fishes N.S. Wales, 12 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.). The ‘sweep,’ Scorpus æquipinnis, is the only fish of this family that is used with us as an article of food.

  33.  a. A crossing-sweeper. b. U.S. A servant who looks after university students’ rooms.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Sweep, a crossing-sweeper.

  VII.  34. attrib. and Comb., as (in sense 16 c) sweep-gale; (in sense 18) sweep-smelter, -washer, -washings; (in sense 32) sweep-boy; sweep-head, the upper end or handle of a large oar (sense 27). (See also SWEEP-.)

1818.  Maginn, in Blackw. Mag., III. 53.

1798.  Jane Austen, Northang. Abb., xxix. To have it [sc. a post-chaise] stop at the *sweep-gate was a sight to brighten every eye.

1847.  Mrs. Gore, Castles in Air, xxv. II. 305. On approaching the sweep-gates of the villa.

1881.  Kipling, Departm. Ditties, Galley-Slave, ii. We gripped the kicking *sweep-head and we made that galley go.

1815.  J. T. Smith, Anc. Topog. Lond., 20. The *Sweepwasher is a person who buys the sweepings of the floors of the working gold and silver smith and also the water in which the workmen wash their hands.

1833.  in R. Ellis, Customs (1840), IV. 154. Sweepwasher’s dirt may be landed and delivered without entry, on due examination.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 1225. Sweepwasher, is the person who extracts from the sweepings, potsherds, etc. of refineries of silver and gold, the small residuum of precious metal.

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Sweep-washings, the refuse of shops in which gold and silver are worked.