Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to sweep
Participle: swept
Gerund: sweeping
Indicative
Present
| I | sweep |
| you | sweep |
| he;she;it | sweeps |
| we | sweep |
| you | sweep |
| they | sweep |
Perfect
| I | have swept |
| you | have swept |
| he;she;it | has swept |
| we | have swept |
| you | have swept |
| they | have swept |
Past
| I | swept |
| you | swept |
| he;she;it | swept |
| we | swept |
| you | swept |
| they | swept |
Pluperfect
| I | had swept |
| you | had swept |
| he;she;it | had swept |
| we | had swept |
| you | had swept |
| they | had swept |
Future
| I | will sweep |
| you | will sweep |
| he;she;it | will sweep |
| we | will sweep |
| you | will sweep |
| they | will sweep |
Future Perfect
| I | will have swept |
| you | will have swept |
| he;she;it | will have swept |
| we | will have swept |
| you | will have swept |
| they | will have swept |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | sweep |
| you | sweep |
| he;she;it | sweep |
| we | sweep |
| you | sweep |
| they | sweep |
Perfect
| I | have swept |
| you | have swept |
| he;she;it | have swept |
| we | have swept |
| you | have swept |
| they | have swept |
Imperfect
| I | swept |
| you | swept |
| he;she;it | swept |
| we | swept |
| you | swept |
| they | swept |
Pluperfect
| I | had swept |
| you | had swept |
| he;she;it | had swept |
| we | had swept |
| you | had swept |
| they | had swept |
Conditional
Present
| I | would sweep |
| you | would sweep |
| he;she;it | would sweep |
| we | would sweep |
| you | would sweep |
| they | would sweep |
Perfect
| I | would have swept |
| you | would have swept |
| he;she;it | would have swept |
| we | would have swept |
| you | would have swept |
| they | would have swept |
Imperative
| you | sweep |
| we | Let's sweep |
| you | sweep |
Verbs conjugated like 'sweep'
creep,
feel,
keep,
lose,
oversleep,
sleep,
sweep,
weep,
becreep,
besleep,
book-keep,
bookkeep,
cosleep,
downsweep,
foreweep,
forsleep,
gatekeep,
housekeep,
increep,
kape, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)
Verbs similar to 'sweep'
seep,
sleep,
steep,
sweet,
tweep,
weep,
beep,
beweep,
bleep,
cheep,
Additional Information
Cf. Old English crēopan (creep), hlēapan (leap), slǣpan (sleep), swāpan (sweep) and wēpan (weep).
Phrasal Verbs
~ along,
~ aside something,
~ something aside,
~ aside somebody,
~ somebody aside,
~ away something,
~ something away,
~ away somebody,
~ somebody away,
~ out something,
~ something out,
~ up (something),
~ (something) up,
~ up something,
~ something up,
Etymology
1. c.1300, perhaps from a past tense form of M.E.
swope "sweep," from O.E.
swapan "to sweep" (transitive & intransitive); see swoop. The noun meaning "range, extent" is attested from 1679; in ref. to police or military actions, it is attested from 1837. Sense of "a winning of all the tricks in a card game" is from 1814 (see sweepstakes); extended to other sports by 1960. As a shortened form of
chimney-sweeper, first attested 1812.
2. From Middle English swepen, from Proto-West Germanic *swaipijan (unattested in Old English), from Proto-Germanic *swaipijaną. Cognate with Early Modern West Frisian swiepe (“whip, cleanse, sweep”), from Old Frisian swēpa, suepa (“sweep”). More distantly related to Old Norse sveipa (whence Swedish svepa). See also swoop. See: Middle English '
swepen', Proto-Germanic '
*swaipijaną', Swedish '
svepa'.
Verbs referencing "sweep"
Proto-Slavic
šibati, Sanskrit
क्षिपति, Hindi
खेना, Irish
síob.
Sample Sentences
-
[...] waters. Owing to the peculiar form of the shore on the Kentucky side, the land bending far out into the water, the ice had been lodged and detained in great quantities, and the narrow channel which swept round the bend was full of ice, piled one cake over another, thus forming a temporary barrier to the descending ice, which lodged, and formed a great, undulating raft, filling up the whole river, [...]
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
-
The boat swept proudly away from the shore, and all went on merrily, as before. Men talked, and loafed, and read, and smoked. Women sewed, and children played, and the boat passed on her way.
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
-
[...] But they were not many; and the rest were as they always had been. He dwelt on this: and said several times that unless they tried to assimilate themselves to their conquerors, they must be swept away before the strides of civilised society.
(American Notes for General Circulation)
-
[...] The Monks ’ Mound; in memory of a body of fanatics of the order of La Trappe, who founded a desolate convent there, many years ago, when there were no settlers within a thousand miles, and were all swept off by the pernicious climate: in which lamentable fatality, few rational people will suppose, perhaps, that society experienced any very severe deprivation.
(American Notes for General Circulation)
-
[...] river with this object, are far from being uncommon. Several men were drowned in the attempt to swim across, not long ago; and one, who had the madness to trust himself upon a table as a raft, was swept down to the whirlpool, where his mangled body eddied round and round some days.
(American Notes for General Circulation)
-
[...] crowded on, dashed gaily past, and left her far behind. Towards evening, the weather turned hazy, with a drizzling rain; and soon became so thick, that we sailed, as it were, in a cloud. Still we swept onward like a phantom ship, and many an eager eye glanced up to where the Look-out on the mast kept watch for Holyhead.
(American Notes for General Circulation)
-
[...] confine her sphere of operation and instruction chiefly to her own chamber. With a self-sacrifice which some of our readers will appreciate, she resolved, instead of comfortably making her own bed, sweeping and dusting her own chamber,—which she had hitherto done, in utter scorn of all offers of help from the chambermaid of the establishment,—to condemn herself to the martyrdom of instructing Topsy to [...]
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
-
[...] learned to do the proprieties of Miss Ophelia's chamber in a way with which even that particular lady could find no fault. Mortal hands could not lay spread smoother, adjust pillows more accurately, sweep and dust and arrange more perfectly, than Topsy, when she chose,—but she didn't very often choose. If Miss Ophelia, after three or four days of careful patient supervision, was so sanguine as to [...]
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
-
Eva and Tom hastened in. Miss Ophelia was old, and skilled in the tactics of nursing. She was from New England, and knew well the first guileful footsteps of that soft, insidious disease, which sweeps away so many of the fairest and loveliest, and, before one fibre of life seems broken, seals them irrevocably for death.
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
-
But the boat swept on. Hours fleeted, and, at last, clear and full rose the blessed English shores; shores charmed by a mighty spell,—with one touch to dissolve every incantation of slavery, no matter in what language [...]
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
-
♪ Ruler of the sapphire ocean His time is right for celebration ♪ ♪ He sweeps the world like a tempest His army triumphs without rest ♪
(Magudam)