different between sweep vs length

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 Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþu (“longness; length”), from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþ?, equivalent to long +? -th. Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: l?ng(k)th, l?n(t)th, IPA^(key): /l??(k)?/, /l?n(t)?/
• Rhymes: -??k?, -???, -?nt?, -?n?

Noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

1. The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.
2. Duration.
   • 1941, Robert Frost, The Gift Outright

     Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

3. (horse racing) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
4. (mathematics) Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
5. (cricket) The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
6. (figuratively) Total extent.

7. Part of something that is long; a physical piece of something.

8. (theater) A unit of script length, comprising 42 lines.
   • 1890, Henry Austin, Address of Henry Austin Before the Second Nationalist Club (page 38)

     […] open your book of the play, which you have previously carefully perused, and at the same time marked with the proper calls, as thus: a length (or 42 lines) before an entrance, with a pen make a figure on the margin, […]

   • 1960, J. L. Hodgkinson, ?Rex Pogson, The Early Manchester Theatre (page 45)

     The boy was engaged to write out parts at a penny a length (42 lines) for Chetwood, who then charged the manager, […]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

length (third-person singular simple present lengths, present participle lengthing, simple past and past participle lengthed)

1. (obsolete) To lengthen.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim, XIV. 30:

     Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow: / Short night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.

   • 1552, Richard Huloet, "Ladies of Destinie" in Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum

     Was never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde.

   • a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in Hell

     [He] knows full well life doth but length his pain.