different between sweep vs stretch

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 strecchen, from Old English stre??an (“to stretch, hold out, extend, spread out, prostrate”), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch, make taut or tight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-, *streg-, *treg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with West Frisian strekke, Dutch strekken (“to stretch, straighten”), German strecken (“to stretch, straighten, elongate”), Danish strække (“to stretch”), Swedish sträcka (“to stretch”), Dutch strak (“taut, tight”), Albanian shtriqem (“to stretch”). More at stark.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st??t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Verb

stretch (third-person singular simple present stretches, present participle stretching, simple past and past participle stretched or (obsolete) straught or (obsolete) straight)

1. (transitive) To lengthen by pulling.

2. (intransitive) To lengthen when pulled.
   • 1660, Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanical: Touching the Spring of the Air and their Effects

     The inner membrane […] because it would stretch and yield, remained unbroken.

3. (transitive) To pull tight.

4. (figuratively, transitive) To get more use than expected from a limited resource.

5. (figuratively, transitive) To make inaccurate by exaggeration.

6. (intransitive) To extend physically, especially from limit point to limit point.

7. (intransitive, transitive) To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles

8. (intransitive) To extend to a limit point

9. (transitive) To increase.
10. (obsolete, colloquial) To stretch the truth; to exaggerate.

11. (nautical) To sail by the wind under press of canvas.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ham. Nav. Encyc to this entry?)

12. (slang, transitive, archaic) To execute by hanging.
13. To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something.

Translations

See also

• pandiculate

Noun

stretch (plural stretches)

1. An act of stretching.

2. The ability to lengthen when pulled.

3. A course of thought which diverts from straightforward logic, or requires extraordinary belief or exaggeration.

4. A segment of a journey or route.

5. A segment or length of material.

6. (Britain, slang, archaic) A walk.
   • Evelyn Underhill, quoted in 2010, Evelyn Underhill, ?Carol Poston, The Making of a Mystic: New and Selected Letters of Evelyn Underhill (page 81)

     In the afternoon I went for a stretch into the country, & about 4 it cleared up pretty well, so I hurried back & we got a cart & drove to Bassano, a little town about 8 miles off, that we wanted to see.

7. (baseball) A quick pitching delivery used when runners are on base where the pitcher slides his leg instead of lifting it.
8. (baseball) A long reach in the direction of the ball with a foot remaining on the base by a first baseman in order to catch the ball sooner.
9. (informal) Term of address for a tall person.
10. (horse racing) The homestretch, the final straight section of the track leading to the finish.
11. A length of time.

    • After the harvest there was a stretch of clear dry weather, and the animals toiled harder than ever […]

    1. (Ireland) Extended daylight hours, especially said of the evening in springtime when compared to the shorter winter days.

    2. (sports) The period of the season between the trade deadline and the beginning of the playoffs.
    3. (slang) A jail or prison term.

       Synonym: stint

       1. (slang) A jail or prison term of one year's duration.
    4. A single uninterrupted sitting; a turn.
12. A stretch limousine.

Translations

Derived terms

Descendants

• Esperanto: stre?i

Further reading

• stretch at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

• (a walk): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• strecht