sweep

To clean a floor or other surface with a broom or brush.

• Please sweep the kitchen floor.
• She swept the path before lunch.
• Have you swept the stairs yet?

Common phrases: sweep the floor, sweep the steps, sweep something clean

To move smoothly over a wide area or in a broad curve.

• His arm swept across the desk.
• Strong winds sweep over the open fields.
• The searchlight swept slowly across the harbour.

How to use it: sweep across/over something (A beam of light swept across the sky.)

Similar words: swing

Common phrases: sweep across something, sweep over something, sweep through something

To remove something quickly and completely with a broad movement or powerful force.

• He swept the papers off his desk.
• The waves swept away the little boat.
• She swept the broken glass into a bag.

How to use it: sweep something off something (She swept the crumbs off the table.); sweep something away (The flood swept the fence away.)

Similar words: clear away, brush away

Common phrases: sweep something away, sweep something aside, sweep something off

An act of cleaning a surface with a broom or brush.

• The floor needs a sweep.
• I gave the steps a quick sweep.
• One more sweep removed the remaining dust.

Common phrases: a quick sweep, give something a sweep

A lottery in which people receive random teams or competitors and win money if theirs wins.

• We organized a sweep for the race.
• My team won the office sweep.
• Everyone paid five pounds to enter the sweep.

Similar words: sweepstake

Common phrases: office sweep, win a sweep, enter a sweep