Find the word definition

Crossword clues for sweeper

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sweeper
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
carpet sweeper
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
carpet
▪ Their other advantages are warmth and ease of cleaning with a carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner.
▪ Dodging between the vinyl booths is Luis Valencia, busily attacking a pile of crumbs with his 3M carpet sweeper.
▪ If in any doubt, it is safer to use a carpet sweeper or brush.
▪ The mechanism of the Ewbank carpet sweeper is identical to today's model.
▪ When I was a tot, I had one of those Ewbank carpet sweepers.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Dodging between the vinyl booths is Luis Valencia, busily attacking a pile of crumbs with his 3M carpet sweeper.
▪ Gudni Bergsson is set to play his first game of the season at sweeper.
▪ I wonder if Hoddle will use the sweeper system and/or play.
▪ It so happened that the crossing sweeper had blood of the same group as this rich Brahmin lady.
▪ The Puerto Rican sweepers carried transistors playing Latin music.
▪ Their other advantages are warmth and ease of cleaning with a carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner.
▪ This makes the car feel tardy in quick manoeuvres and exacerbates the variable-ratio's less-than-linear response through fast sweepers.
▪ Typical occupations were street sweepers, barrow boys, forklift-loader drivers, or labourers.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sweeper

Sweeper \Sweep"er\, n. One who, or that which, sweeps, or cleans by sweeping; a sweep; as, a carpet sweeper.

It is oxygen which is the great sweeper of the economy.
--Huxley.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sweeper

1520s, agent noun from sweep (v.). As a position in soccer (association football) by 1964.

Wiktionary
sweeper

n. 1 One who sweeps floors or chimneys 2 A detector (for mines) 3 A small, tropical marine perciform fish of the family ''(taxlink Pempheridae family noshow=1)'', typically with deeply keeled, compressed bodies and large eyes. 4 (context football English) A defender who is the last line of defence before the goalkeeper 5 (context curling English) A person who sweeps the ice ahead of the rock in play. 6 (context cricket English) A batsman who plays sweep shots 7 (context cricket English) A fielding position along the boundary; a fielder in this position 8 A tree that has fallen over a river with branches extending into the water.

WordNet
sweeper
  1. n. an employee who sweeps (floors or streets etc.)

  2. a cleaning device with revolving brushes that pick up dirt as the device is pushed over a carpet [syn: carpet sweeper]

  3. little-known nocturnal fish of warm shallow seas with an oblong compressed body

Wikipedia
Sweeper

Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) perciform fish of the family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 26 species in two genera. One species (Pempheris xanthoptera) is the target of subsistence fisheries in Japan, where the fish is much enjoyed for its taste. Sweepers are occasionally kept in marine aquaria.

Sweeper (association football)

The sweeper is a defensive position in football, so called because their job is to 'sweep up' any attacking moves which pass other defenders. It was most commonly used by football teams in Europe until the 1990s. While the position usually has solely defensive duties, Franz Beckenbauer, one of the most famous sweepers, became famous for adding an offensive component of the ball playing defender. Other notable sweepers include Ivano Blason, Gaetano Scirea, Bobby Moore, Franco Baresi and Elias Figueroa. It is generally considered a highly specialized position. The sweeper is usually placed between the goalkeeper and the defensive line.

The sweeper is sometimes also called 'libero' from the Italian name "battitore libero" meaning "free hitter", which describes the players' freedom from having to mark a particular opponent, as well as their liberty to play or advance with the ball out of the defence, or to make clearances instead of dribbling or playing the ball.

Sweeper (disambiguation)

A sweeper is a small tropical fish of the family Pempheridae.

Sweeper can also refer to:

  • Street sweeper, a person whose job is cleaning the streets
  • Sweeper (football), a defensive position in association football
  • Sweeper (Black Cat), a bounty hunter from the Anime and Manga Black Cat
  • Carpet sweeper, a mechanical device for cleaning carpets and floors
    • Vacuum cleaner, a similar device, sometimes called a "sweeper"
  • Radio sweeper, a short promotional sample used by radio stations
  • Lu Tze, a character nicknamed 'Sweeper' in the Discworld series

Usage examples of "sweeper".

Then came the servants, observing precedence--butler, hamal, dog-boy, dhobie, sweeper, three gardeners--all salaaming with both hands, and Mahommed Babar standing straight as a ramrod over to the right because he was of the North and a Moslem, and would not submit to comparison with Hindus.

The sweeper swept himself away, then swept back again and dropped a meringue swan, unburned but missing a tail, into her lap.

All these ships were crewed by former stevedores, clerks, rackers, counters, tally-hands, sweepers, and managers.

At the moment you are showing the intelligence of first level ceboid, a sweeper of dung.

Then came the servants, observing precedence--butler, hamal, dog-boy, dhobie, sweeper, three gardeners--all salaaming with both hands, and Mahommed Babar standing straight as a ramrod over to the right because he was of the North and a Moslem, and would not submit to comparison with Hindus.

Harassing fire for the most part, although a Hudathan trooper had been wounded the day before, and a LaNorian street sweeper had been killed by a spent round.

A small scoop front functioned as a vacuum, and brushes on retracted tentacles betrayed its second duty as a sweeper.

When a chorus of shouts announced that the primary sweeper teams were ready, Lanyan instructed them to reanchor themselves to the deck.

Italians together with some straggly irregulars local charwomen, reformed bagladies, London sweepers.

It was plain to every milkmaid and street sweeper in the rue Royale that this British officer was glad to be alive, delighted to be in Belgium, and that he expected every one in Brussels to share his evident enjoyment of life, health and happiness.

Then the clerks and cashiers and floorwalkers and cash girls went home and the store was closed for the night, although the sweepers and scrubbers remained to clean the floors for the following day.

House of Sweepers toiled to clean away the hideous mess that the multitudes of other festival-goers were creating.

The Sweepers in their purple loincloths went dancing by, whisking dangerous spirits out of the roadway with their little brooms, and then, in silence, came the heart of the Procession out of the heavy morning mists that lay at the lower end of town.

It was a chronic problem keeping sweepers because of the nature of the job.

Now I understand why people spend their time as street sweepers or on assembly lines.