different between sweep vs graze

English

Etymology

From Middle English swepen, and perhaps from Old English sw?op, the past tense form of Old English sw?pan, from Proto-West Germanic *swaipan, from Proto-Germanic *swaipan?. Cognate with Early Modern West Frisian swiepe (“whip, cleanse, sweep”), from Old Frisian sw?pa, suepa (“sweep”). See also swoop.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sw?p, IPA^(key): /swi?p/
• Rhymes: -i?p

Verb

sweep (third-person singular simple present sweeps, present participle sweeping, simple past and past participle swept)

1. (transitive) To clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush.

   • I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.

2. (intransitive) To move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.
   • 2005, Lesley Brown (translator), Sophist by Plato, 236d:

     [H]as the course of the argument so accustomed you to agreeing that you were swept by it into a ready assent?

3. (transitive) To search (a place) methodically.
4. (intransitive, figuratively) To travel quickly.
5. (cricket) To play a sweep shot.
6. (curling) To brush the ice in front of a moving stone, causing it to travel farther and to curl less.
7. (transitive, ergative) To move something in a long sweeping motion, as a broom.
8. (sports, transitive) To win (a series) without drawing or losing any of the games in that series.
9. (sports, transitive) To defeat (a team) in a series without drawing or losing any of the games in that series.
10. (transitive) To remove something abruptly and thoroughly.
11. To brush against or over; to rub lightly along.

    Their long descending train, / With rubies edg'd and sapphires, swept the plain.

    • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.

12. To carry with a long, swinging, or dragging motion; hence, to carry in a stately or proud fashion.
13. To strike with a long stroke.
14. (rowing) To row with one oar to either the port or starboard side.
15. (nautical) To draw or drag something over.

16. To pass over, or traverse, with the eye or with an instrument of observation.

17. (US, regional, including Ohio and Indiana) to vacuum a carpet or rug

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

sweep (plural sweeps)

1. A single action of sweeping.

2. The person who steers a dragon boat.
3. A person who stands at the stern of a surf boat, steering with a steering oar and commanding the crew.
4. A chimney sweep.
5. A methodical search, typically for bugs (electronic listening devices).
6. (cricket) A batsman's shot, played from a kneeling position with a swinging horizontal bat.

7. A lottery, usually on the results of a sporting event, where players win if their randomly chosen team wins.

8. A flow of water parallel to shore caused by wave action at an ocean beach or at a point or headland.
9. (martial arts) A throw or takedown that primarily uses the legs to attack an opponent's legs.
10. Violent and general destruction.

11. (metalworking) A movable templet for making moulds, in loam moulding.
12. (card games) In the game casino, the act of capturing all face-up cards from the table.
13. The compass of any turning body or of any motion.

14. Direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, etc. away from a rectilinear line.
15. A large oar used in small vessels, partly to propel them and partly to steer them.
16. (rowing) A rowing style in which each rower rows with oar on either the port or starboard side.

17. (refining, obsolete) The almond furnace.
18. A long pole, or piece of timber, moved on a horizontal fulcrum fixed to a tall post and used to raise and lower a bucket in a well for drawing water.
19. Any of the blades of a windmill.
20. (in the plural) The sweepings of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc.
21. Any of several sea chubs in the family Kyphosidae (subfamily Scorpidinae).
    • 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador 2014, p. 28:

      Octopus clambered about from hole to hole and startled sweep blurred away as we passed.

22. An expanse or a swath, a strip of land.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• sweep in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “sweep”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• weeps

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch zweep, from Middle Dutch swepe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sv???p/

Noun

sweep (plural swepe, diminutive swepie)

1. A whip.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English sweep.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?swip/

Noun

sweep m (plural sweeps)

1. (electric guitar) sweep (arpeggio played with a single movement of the picking hand)

English

Etymology

From Old English grasian (“to feed on grass”), from græs (“grass”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?z/
• Homophones: grays, greys
• Rhymes: -e?z

Noun

graze (plural grazes)

1. The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing.
2. A light abrasion; a slight scratch.
3. The act of animals feeding from pasture.
   • 1904, Empire Review (volume 6, page 188)

     If it be sundown, when the herds are returning from their daily graze in the long grass of the jungle, clouds of dust will be marking their track along every approach to the village […]

Translations

Verb

graze (third-person singular simple present grazes, present participle grazing, simple past and past participle grazed)

1. (transitive) To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Considerations upon Two Bills Relating to the Clergy

     a field or two to graze his cows

   • 1999: Although it is perfectly good meadowland, none of the villagers has ever grazed animals on the meadow on the other side of the wall. — Stardust, Neil Gaiman, page 4 (2001 Perennial Edition).
2. (transitive, intransitive) To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture)

   Cattle graze in the meadows.

   • 1993, John Montroll, Origami Inside-Out (page 41)

     The bird [Canada goose] is more often found on land than other waterfowl because of its love for seeds and grains. The long neck is well adapted for grazing.

3. (transitive) To tend (cattle, etc.) while grazing.
   • 1596-98, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act I, scene iii:

     Shylock: When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep

4. (intransitive) To eat periodically throughout the day, rather than at fixed mealtimes.
   • 2008, Mohgah Elsheikh, Caroline Murphy, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

     Furthermore, people who take the time to sit down to proper meals find their food more satisfying than people who graze throughout the day. If you skip meals, you will inevitably end up snacking on more high-fat high-sugar foods.

5. To shoplift by consuming food or drink items before reaching the checkout.
   • 1992, Shoplifting (page 18)

     Grazing refers to customers who consume food items before paying for them, for example, a customer bags one and a half pounds of grapes in the produce department, eats some as she continues her shopping […]

   • 2001, Labor Arbitration Information System (volume 2, page 59)

     Had the Grievant attempted to pay for the Mylanta or actually paid for it, then she would not be guilty of grazing or shoplifting.

6. (transitive) To rub or touch lightly the surface of (a thing) in passing.

   the bullet grazed the wall

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 23

     But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through.

7. (transitive) To cause a slight wound to; to scratch.

   to graze one's knee

8. (intransitive) To yield grass for grazing.

Derived terms

• Earth-grazing
• grazing fire
• overgraze

Translations

Anagrams

• Garzê, Zager, gazer

Dutch

Verb

graze

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of grazen