Also 5 swepare, 6 -er, -ar, 7 sweaper. [f. SWEEP v. + -ER1.]
1. gen. One who or that which sweeps (something): usually with objective of.
1530. Palsgr., 278/1. Swepar of chymneys.
1552. Huloet, Sweper of houses, scoparius … Sweper of the ground wyth hys fete, atta.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 137. New broome swepeth cleane, in the cleane swepers hande.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., I. I. 18. The Sweeper of a Chimney.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Sweeper of the sky … a name given by sailors to the N. W. winds of America.
1812. Cobbett, in Examiner, 19 Oct., 671/1. Noble Ladies, who … condescended to become housekeepers and sweepers of malls.
† b. A broom for sweeping out an oven. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 323/2. Malkyne, mappyl, or ouen swepare, dossorium, tersorium.
1580. [see oven-sweeper, OVEN sb. 4].
c. One who or a vessel that sweeps for something under water. Also in mine-sweeper.
1775. Falck, Day’s Diving Vessel, 46. The boat should advance but very slowly, and the sweepers should hold the line in their hands all the while.
2. A person employed in sweeping a room, chimney, house, ship, etc.; spec. in India, a person of the lowest caste. Also in comb., as CHIMNEY-SWEEPER, CROSSING-sweeper.
1657. J. Watts, Scribe, Pharisee, etc., I. 267. Those chimney houses, so foul, and black, and sooty, that they need the sweeper to come to them quickly.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. III. 76. The four private Sweepers [in the papal household].
1675. J. Smith, Chr. Relig. Appeal, III. i. § 6. 12. Hybreas the Oratour, in lineaments of Face and whole Body was so peer’d by the sweeper of his School, as [etc.].
1714. Parkyns, Inn-Play, 13. A Sweeper and Pump-Dresser to a Fencing School.
1715. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), V. 47. A Woman and a Girl … not sworn or admitted to be Sweepers.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Swabber … ship’s sweeper, usually called captain’s swabber.
1790. Laws of Harvard Coll., 58. The Steward shall also engage proper sweepers for the Colleges.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 82. Whose rhymes are so bad, he was never yet able To serve as last sweeper in Pegasus’ stable.
1859. Lang, Wand. India, 259. Two sweepers—men of the lowest caste of Hindoos.
1861. Macm. Mag., Feb., 268/2. The rooms [in an American College] were supposed to be taken care of by three or four men called ‘sweepers,’ whose duty extended only to making the beds daily, and sweeping the rooms occasionally.
attrib. 1837. Lett. fr. Madras, x. (1843), 89. He kept no sweeper-woman, and, as may be supposed, the dirt crunched under our feet as we walked.
a. 1851. Mrs. Sherwood, Poor Burruff, 11. Marten, who sent the sweeper-man immediately to the poor dog, to remove the arrow.
b. One who sweeps the ice at curling.
1789. Davidson, Seasons, 165. Allan of Airds, a sweeper good.
† 3. A pliant rod forming part of a snare for catching birds. Obs.
1621. Markham, Hunger’s Prevent., vi. 42. The sweaper or maine plant, which as it is prescribed of Hazell, Elme, or Witchen, so in this case it may be of Willow.
1681. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 245. The main Plant, or Sweeper must be also proportionable to the strength of the Fowl.
4. A telescope used for ‘sweeping’ the sky: cf. SWEEP sb. 7, v. 21. ? Obs.
1786. Sir W. Herschel, Sci. Papers (1912), I. 294. This nebula was discovered … with an excellent small Newtonian Sweeper of 27 inches focal length, and a power of 30. Ibid. (1792), in Phil. Trans., LXXXII. 24. Its place for the same night (Dec. 16th) was determined by a five-feet Newtonian Sweeper.
5. A mechanical apparatus for sweeping a floor, road, etc.; a sweeping-machine.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6139. The dust, lint, and even hairs, pins, needles, &c. are taken up directly into the box and there retained as the sweeper moves along.
1892. A. E. Lee, Hist. Columbus (Ohio), II. 528. [In 1886] N. B. Abbott began running a fourhorse sweeper on High Street six nights per week.
6. A tree growing close to the margin of a stream and overhanging it.
In recent Dicts.
Hence Sweeperess nonce-wd., a female (crossing-) sweeper.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xlii. The sweeperess at the crossing.
