sweeping

Pluralsweepings (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Wide-ranging and broad, affecting or touching on a great many things.

   The committee proposed sweeping reforms to the entire health system.

   His sweeping generalizations ignored most of the careful exceptions.

   Similarbroad, comprehensive, wide-ranging, thorough, general

   Oppositelimited, narrow, modest

   Note

   Politics and argument are where it is most often met: sweeping changes, sweeping reforms, and the critical sweeping statement, which claims a great deal on very little evidence. The word keeps its physical side too. O. S. Nock's 1947 railway account rounds "the sweeping curve through Esplanade Station." It is gradable, so a protest can become "more sweeping." Across-the-board and wide-ranging are its close synonyms.

2. 2
   adjective

   Total and overwhelming in extent or effect, leaving little or nothing out.

   The party won a sweeping majority in the national election.

   Critics gave the film sweeping praise from start to finish.

   Similaroverwhelming, resounding, decisive

   Oppositenarrow, slim

   Note

   Here the word measures margin rather than reach. A sweeping victory leaves the other side almost nothing. It pairs with words of winning, such as victory and majority, while the wide-ranging meaning pairs with changes and statements. Reforms can be wide and still modest in effect, but a sweeping victory cannot be a narrow one.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of sweep.

   Sweeping the porch each morning kept the dust from settling indoors.

   The searchlights were sweeping the dark harbor for the missing boat.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs. The -ing form builds the progressive (she is sweeping the porch), and it also works as a gerund that behaves like a noun (sweeping kept the dust down). It carries every sense of the verb, from brooms to searchlights to curlers brushing the ice ahead of a moving stone. The gerund is the seed of the activity noun, and the adjectives grow from the same sweep + -ing.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The activity of cleaning a floor or surface with a broom or brush.

   Sweeping took up most of the cleaner's first hour each day.

   The workshop needs daily sweeping to keep the sawdust under control.

   Similarcleaning

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A single instance of cleaning a floor or surface with a broom or brush.

   A thorough sweeping of the stage removed the last of the confetti.

   One careful sweeping wasn't enough to clear all the broken glass.

   Similarcleaning

   Note

   The countable noun takes an article, as in the sidewalk needed a sweeping. Drop the article and the sentence switches to the uncountable activity: the sidewalk needed sweeping, which names the chore in general rather than one round of it. A thorough sweeping or one more sweeping counts the job, while plain sweeping only names it.

6. 6
   adjective

   Moving in one continuous, flowing motion rather than in separate, intermittent jumps.

   The camera made a sweeping arc to follow the runner across the field.

   A sweeping second hand circles the dial without any visible ticks.

   Similarsmooth, flowing, continuous

   Oppositejerky

   Note

   A clock face shows the contrast plainly. A sweeping second hand glides around the dial without pause, and a ticking one jumps from mark to mark. The word names the continuity of the movement, not its breadth, and that is what separates it from the wide-ranging meaning. Its natural opposite in this use is ticking or stepping, not narrow.

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