sweeper

noun sweep·er \ ˈswē-pər \

|Updated on: 20 Jun 2018

Definition of sweeper

1 : one that sweeps

2 : a lone back in soccer who plays between the line of the defenders and the goal

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Recent Examples of sweeper from the Web

The 2006-7 San Antonio Spurs, the last sweepers before these Warriors, shot just 44.4 percent, and are one of five sweeping teams that made fewer than half of their attempts.

— benjamin hoffman, New York Times, "The Warriors Were Dominant. But How Dominant?," 9 June 2018
The bus driver came upon the street sweeper, which was in motion in the right eastbound lane, and struck it in the back, Myers said.

— christina hall, Detroit Free Press, "3 injured when SMART bus hits street sweeper in Chesterfield Twp., police say," 7 June 2018
The suspect then drove the sweeper south along Route 93, officials said.

— abigail feldman, BostonGlobe.com, "Person stole street sweeper, drove it at state trooper, police say," 2 Apr. 2018
Morten Olsen was the sweeper then, and went on to coach the Danish team for 15 years.

— michelle kaufman, miamiherald, "Meet South Florida's World Cup fans: Group C," 31 May 2018
Each week shoulder sweeping contractors collect larger items in advance of street sweepers finishing the cleaning job at night.

— weldon b. johnson, azcentral, "ADOT, DPS warn Phoenix area drivers to look out for "gators"," 30 May 2018
The Special Forces team leader came within inches of stepping on one while patrolling in the mountains recently, but an Afghan mine sweeper stopped him in time.

— michael m. phillips, WSJ, "Green Berets Brace for Islamic State Offensive in Afghanistan," 15 May 2018
But skip John Schuster and his team of sweepers couldn’t quite land it inside Canada’s closest, and fell into a 5–5 tie instead of taking a 6–4 lead.

— mitch goldich, SI.com, "By the Slimmest of Margins, the U.S. Knocks Canada Off in Curling Thriller," 19 Feb. 2018
Last year, former Mayor Ed Lee and City Administrator Naomi Kelly began a pilot program to crack down on drug trafficking, add street sweepers and bring services to homeless people hanging out in the area.

— rachel swan, San Francisco Chronicle, "BART’s cat-and-mouse game to keep SF stations clean," 28 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sweeper.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of sweeper

15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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SWEEPER Defined for English Language Learners

sweeper

noun

Definition of sweeper for English Language Learners

: a person or machine that sweeps something
soccer : a player whose position is behind other defending players

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See words that rhyme with sweeper Spanish Central: Translation of sweeper Nglish: Translation of sweeper for Spanish speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about sweeper

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