swee page (swepaj)

[ Oxygen, the sweeper of the living organism, becomes the lord of the dead body. Huxley and Youmans , Physiol., § 35. It was late in the day when the big sweepers with six teams of horses came down to clear the track. New York Times , Jan. 26, 1891. 2. A tree growing on the margin of a stream, and overhanging the water at a sharp angle from the bank. It sometimes forms an excellent fishing-place. sweeping (swē'ping), n. [Early mod. E. also swepyng ; verbal n. of sweep , v.] 1. The act of one who or that which sweeps, in any sense; also, the result of such act. With a sweeping of the arm, And a lack-lustre dead-blue eye, Devolved his rounded periods. Tennyson, A Character. Within the flowery swarth he heard The sweeping of the scythe. William Morris, Earthly Paradise, I. 379. 2. pl . Whatever is gathered together by or as by sweeping; rubbish; refuse. They shulde bee dryuen togyther on heapes by th[e]ympulsyon of the shyppes, euen as a be a some gather eth the swepynges of a house. Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, ed. [Arber, p. 157). The sweepings of the finest lady's chamber. Swift , Meditation upon a Broomstick. The population [of Armenia) was composed largely of the sweepings of Asia Minor, Christian tribes which had taken refuge in the mountains. Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 159. Specifically- (a) In stereotyping and electrotyping , the bits of metal thrown on the floor by sawing and planing-machines. (b) In printing , the waste paper swept up from the floor of a pre -room. (c) In bookbinding , the bits of gold-leaf gathered up by the cotton cloth that is used to remove the surplus gold of a gilded book. sweeping (swē'ping), p . a . [Ppr. of sweep , v.] 1. Carrying everything before it; overwhelming: as, a sweeping majority. Regardle of the sweeping whirlwind's sway. Gray, The Bard, II. ii. 18. 2. Including or comprehending many individuals or particulars in a single act or a ertion; comprehensive; all-including: as, a sweeping charge; a sweeping declaration. One sweeping clause of ban and anathema. Burke, Rev. in France. This has the manifest drawback of most generalizations: it is far too sweeping . A. Dobson , Introd. to Steele, p. xi. There is no doubt that the Roman commonwealth in its last days needed the most sweeping of reforms. E. A. Freeman , Amer. Lects., p. 336. Sweeping resolution, in U. S. hist ., a resolution pa ed by the Ohio legislature in 1810, declaring vacant the seats of all the State judges. sweeping-car (swe'ping-kär), n. A car carrying mechanical rotary brooms for sweeping snow and dirt from a railroad-track.