different between sweep vs swing

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 swingen, from Old English swingan, from Proto-Germanic *swingan? (compare Low German swingen, German schwingen, Dutch zwingen, Swedish svinga), from Proto-Indo-European *sweng- (compare Scottish Gaelic seang (“thin”)). Related to swink.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sw??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

swing (third-person singular simple present swings, present participle swinging, simple past swung or (archaic or dialectal) swang, past participle swung or (archaic) swungen)

1. (intransitive) To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.

   The plant swung in the breeze.

   • 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 12

     With one accord the tribe swung rapidly toward the frightened cries, and there found Terkoz holding an old female by the hair and beating her unmercifully with his great hands.
2. (intransitive) To dance.
3. (intransitive) To ride on a swing.

   The children laughed as they swung.

4. (intransitive) To participate in the swinging lifestyle; to participate in wife-swapping.
5. (intransitive) To hang from the gallows.
6. (intransitive, cricket, of a ball) to move sideways in its trajectory.
7. (intransitive) To fluctuate or change.

   It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability.

8. (transitive) To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave.

   He swung his sword as hard as he could.

9. (transitive) To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election.
10. (transitive) To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially.

    If it’s not too expensive, I think we can swing it.

11. (transitive, music) To play notes that are in pairs by making the first of the pair slightly longer than written (augmentation) and the second shorter, resulting in a bouncy, uneven rhythm.
12. (transitive, cricket) (of a bowler) to make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.
13. (transitive and intransitive, boxing) To move one's arm in a punching motion.
14. (transitive) In dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms.

    "to swing one's partner", or simply "to swing"

15. (transitive, engineering) To admit or turn something for the purpose of shaping it; said of a lathe.

    The lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter.

16. (transitive, carpentry) To put (a door, gate, etc.) on hinges so that it can swing or turn.
17. (nautical) To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor.

    A ship swings with the tide.

Troponyms

• (to rotate about an off-centre fixed point): pivot, swivel

Derived terms

• come out swinging
• overswing
• swing into action
• swingle

Translations

Noun

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

1. The manner in which something is swung.
2. The sweep or compass of a swinging body.
3. A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing.
5. A hanging seat in a children's playground, for acrobats in a circus, or on a porch for relaxing.
6. A dance style.
7. (music) The genre of music associated with this dance style.
8. The amount of change towards or away from something.
   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

     Miss Pole came round with a swing to as vehement a belief in the sorrowful tale as she had been sceptical before […]

   1. (politics) In an election, the increase or decrease in the number of votes for opposition parties compared with votes for the incumbent party.

      The polls showed a wide swing to Labour.

9. (cricket) Sideways movement of the ball as it flies through the air.
10. Capacity of a turning lathe, as determined by the diameter of the largest object that can be turned in it.
11. In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.
12. A basic dance step in which a pair link hands and turn round together in a circle.
13. This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
14. (obsolete) Free course; unrestrained liberty.

    • Take thy swing.

    • 1788, Edmund Burke, speech in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings

      To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle on the full swing of his genius.

15. Influence or power of anything put in motion.
16. (boxing) A type of hook with the arm more extended.

Quotations

• 1937 June 11, Judy Garland, “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm”, A day at the races, Sam Wood (director), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

  All God’s chillun got rhythm. All God's chillun got swing.

  Maybe haven't got money, maybe haven't got shoes.

  All God’s chillun got rhythm for to push away their blues.

Derived terms

• sex swing
• swing and a miss
• swing of things
• swings and roundabouts
• what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

Translations

Anagrams

• Gwins, wings

Czech

Noun

swing m

1. swing (dance)

Further reading

• swing in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• swing in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English swing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swi?/

Noun

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing; several senses

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English swing.

Noun

swing m (invariable)

1. swing (music and dance style; golf swing)

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English swing.

Noun

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing (a dance and music style)
2. swinging (exchange of partners for sex)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English swing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?swin/, [?sw?n]

Noun

swing m (plural swings)

1. swing (dance)