To move or pass along with a swift waving or surging movement: as, the wind sweeps along the plain; pass with overwhelming force or violence, especially over a surface: as, a sweeping flood.To pass with pomp, as if with trailing garments: sometimes with an indefinite it.To move with a long reach; move with a prolonged sliding or trailing motion: as, a sweeping stroke.To pass systematically over a surface in search of something; especially, to move the line of vision in such a way as to search every part of a given angular area: a modification of the transitive use II., 5.To pass over a surface with a broom or besom; clean up: as, a servant engaged to sweep and scrub.To swing or slat the flukes from side to side, as a whale when wounded or attacked.To move, drive, or carry forward or away by overwhelming force or violence; remove or gather up by a long brushing stroke: literally or figuratively: as, the wind sweeps the snow from the tops of the hills; a flood sweeps away a bridge or a house.To carry with a long swinging or dragging movement; trail pompously.To strike with a long sweeping stroke; brush or traverse quickly with the fingers; pass with a brushing motion, as the fingers; hence, to produce, as musical sounds, by such a motion or stroke.To move over or along: as, the wind swept the surface of the sea.To direct the eye over in a comprehensive glance; view with the eye or an optical instrument in a rapid and general survey: as, to sweep the heavens with a telescope.To brush over, as with a broom or besom, for removing loose dirt; make clean by brushing: as, to sweep a floor or a chimney.To rid as by sweeping; clear.To draw or drag something over: as, to sweep the bottom of a river with a net, or with the bight of a rope to hook an anchor.To propel by means of sweeps or long oars.To have within range of fire; clear of enemies or a mob by a discharge of artillery or musketry, as a street or square.n. The act of sweeping; the act of effecting something by means of a sweeping or clearing-out force; hence, wholesale change or removal.n. The reach or range of a continued motion or stroke: as, the long sweep of a scythe; direction or extent of any motion not rectilinear: as, the sweep of a compass; hence, range, in general; compass.n. Specifically— The compass of anything flowing or blowing: as, the flood or the storm carried away everything within its sweep.n. Reach; extent; prevalence, as of a disease: as, the sweep of an epidemic.n. A turn, bend, or curve.n. A circular, semicircular, or curved carriage-drive in front of a house.n. A rapid survey or inspection by moving the direction of vision in a systematic manner so as to search the whole of a given angular area; especially, in astronomy, the act of sweeping (see sweep, v. i., 4); hence, the immediate object of such a view; hence, again, the external object, the country, or section of the heavens viewed.n. In ship-building, any are of a circle used in the body-plan to describe the form of the timbers.n. Nautical, a large oar, used in small vessels sometimes to assist the rudder in turning the vessel in a calm, but usually to propel the craft. Also swape.n. A metal frame on which the tiller or rudder-yoke of a ship travels.n. An engine formerly used in war for throwing stones into fortresses; a ballista.n. A device for drawing water from a well by means of a long pole resting on a tall upright as a fulcrum; also, one of various somewhat similar levers performing other functions, as the lever of a horse-power. Also swipe, swape.n. In loam-molding, a pattern shape consisting of a board of which the edge is cut to the form of the cross-sectional outline of the article to be molded.n. A form of light plow or cultivator used for working crops planted in rows, as cotton or maize; a cotton-sweep.n. In card-playing: In the game of casino, a pairing or combining of all the cards on the board and so removing them all.n. In whist, the winning of all the tricks in a hand.n. Same as sweepstakes.n. plural The sweepings of an establishment where precious metals are worked, as a goldsmith's or silversmith's shop, or a mint.n. One who sweeps; a sweeper; specifically, a chimney-sweeper.n. See the quotation.To form (a mold which has the profile made by a surface of revolution) by causing the profile, reproduced on the edge of a board, to revolve or sweep around an axis. See sweep, n., 11.n. A light one-horse plow-stock equipped with a sweep blade, used in working cotton, etc.n. A plow-shovel designed to destroy weeds and stir the surface of the soil between rows. It is of a triangular form. somewhat bent back at the sides, often expanded into wings (wing-sweep), sometimes to a breadth of 30 inches. The wings may be adjustable.n. In thermodynamics, any change in a material system, not in equilibrium, which brings it spontaneously into equilibrium; an irreversible process. Also called a sweeping process.