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Sweep vs Swing - What's the difference?

sweep | swing | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between sweep and swing

is that sweep is to remove something abruptly and thoroughly while swing is in dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms.

In intransitive terms the difference between sweep and swing

is that sweep is to move through an (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke while swing is to fluctuate or change.

In cricket terms the difference between sweep and swing

is that sweep is a batsman's shot, played from a kneeling position with a swinging horizontal bat while swing is sideways movement of the ball as it flies through the air.

In nautical terms the difference between sweep and swing

is that sweep is to draw or drag something over while swing is to turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor.

sweep

English

Verb

  • To clean (a surface) by means of a motion of a broom or brush.
  • to sweep a floor, the street, or a chimney
  • * (Bible), (w) xiv. 23
  • I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.
  • To move through an (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.
  • * 2005 , (Lesley Brown) (translator), Sophist by (Plato), :
  • [H]as the course of the argument so accustomed you to agreeing that you were swept by it into a ready assent?
  • To search (a place) methodically.
  • (figuratively) To travel quickly.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=February 1, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
  • , title= Arsenal 2-1 Everton , passage=Everton took that disputed lead in a moment that caused anger to sweep around the Emirates. }}
  • (cricket) To play a sweep shot.
  • (curling) To brush the ice in front of a moving stone, causing it to travel farther and to curl less.
  • (ergative) To move something in a particular motion, as a broom.
  • (sports) To win (a series) without drawing or losing any of the games in that series.
  • (sports) To defeat (a team) in a series without drawing or losing any of the games in that series.
  • To remove something abruptly and thoroughly.
  • The wind sweeps the snow from the hills.
    The flooded river swept away the wooden dam.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author= Ed Pilkington
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= ‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told , passage=In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.}}
  • To brush against or over; to rub lightly along.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • Their long descending train, / With rubies edged and sapphires, swept the plain.
  • *
  • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
  • To carry with a long, swinging, or dragging motion; hence, to carry in a stately or proud fashion.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • And like a peacock sweep along his tail.
  • To strike with a long stroke.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Wake into voice each silent string, / And sweep the sounding lyre.
  • (nautical) To draw or drag something over.
  • to sweep the bottom of a river with a net
  • To pass over, or traverse, with the eye or with an instrument of observation.
  • to sweep the heavens with a telescope

    Derived terms

    * sweeper * sweep across * sweep someone off their feet * sweep something under the rug * sweep up * sweepy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The person who steers a dragon boat.
  • A person who stands at the stern of a surf boat, steering with a steering oar and commanding the crew.
  • A chimney sweep.
  • A search (typically for bugs [electronic listening devices]).
  • (cricket) A batsman's shot, played from a kneeling position with a swinging horizontal bat.
  • A lottery, usually on the results of a sporting event, where players win if their randomly chosen team wins.
  • Jim will win fifty dollars in the office sweep if Japan wins the World Cup.
  • A flow of water parallel to shore caused by wave action at an ocean beach or at a point or headland.
  • A single action of sweeping.
  • Violent and general destruction.
  • the sweep of an epidemic disease
  • (metalworking) A movable templet for making moulds, in loam moulding.
  • (card games) In the game casino, the act of capturing all face-up cards from the table.
  • The compass of any turning body or of any motion.
  • the sweep''' of a door; the '''sweep of the eye
  • Direction or departure of a curve, a road, an arch, etc. away from a rectilinear line.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • the road which makes a small sweep
  • A large oar used in small vessels, partly to propel them and partly to steer them.
  • (refining, obsolete) The almond furnace.
  • A long pole, or piece of timber, moved on a horizontal fulcrum fixed to a tall post and used to raise and lower a bucket in a well for drawing water.
  • (in the plural) The sweepings of workshops where precious metals are worked, containing filings, etc.
  • Derived terms

    * chimney sweep * clean sweep * sweepstake

    References

    *

    swing

    English

    (wikipedia swing)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) swingen, from (etyl) swingan, from (etyl) (compare Scottish Gaelic seang 'thin').

    Verb

  • To rotate about an off-centre fixed point.
  • The plant swung in the breeze.
  • * 1912 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 12
  • With one accord the tribe swung rapidly toward the frightened cries, and there found Terkoz holding an old female by the hair and beating her unmercifully with his great hands.
  • To dance.
  • To ride on a swing.
  • The children laughed as they swung .
  • To participate in the lifestyle; to participate in wife-swapping.
  • To hang from the gallows.
  • (intransitive, cricket, of a ball) to move sideways in its trajectory.
  • To fluctuate or change.
  • It wasn't long before the crowd's mood swung towards restless irritability.
  • To move (an object) backward and forward; to wave.
  • He swung his sword as hard as he could.
  • To change (a numerical result); especially to change the outcome of an election.
  • To make (something) work; especially to afford (something) financially.
  • If it’s not too expensive, I think we can swing it.
  • (music) To play notes that are in pairs by making the first of the pair slightly longer than written (augmentation) and the second, resulting in a bouncy, uneven rhythm.
  • (cricket) (of a bowler) to make the ball move sideways in its trajectory.
  • (transitive, and, intransitive, boxing) To move one's arm in a punching motion.
  • In dancing, to turn around in a small circle with one's partner, holding hands or arms.
  • "to swing''' one's partner", or simply "to '''swing "
  • (engineering) To admit or turn something for the purpose of shaping it; said of a lathe.
  • The lathe can swing a pulley of 12 inches diameter.
  • (carpentry) To put (a door, gate, etc.) on hinges so that it can swing or turn.
  • (nautical) To turn round by action of wind or tide when at anchor.
  • A ship swings with the tide.
    Derived terms
    * come out swinging
    Troponyms
    *(to rotate about an off-centre fixed point) pivot, swivel

    Etymology 2

    From the above verb.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The manner in which something is swung.
  • A line, cord, or other thing suspended and hanging loose, upon which anything may swing.
  • A hanging seat in a children's playground, for acrobats in a circus, or on a porch for relaxing.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.}}
  • A dance style.
  • (music) The genre of music associated with this dance style.
  • The amount of change towards or away from something.
  • # (politics) In an election, the increase or decrease in the number of votes for opposition parties compared with votes for the incumbent party.
  • The polls showed a wide swing to Labour.
  • (cricket) Sideways movement of the ball as it flies through the air.
  • The diameter that a lathe can cut.
  • In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.
  • A basic dance step in which a pair link hands and turn round together in a circle.
  • Capacity of a turning lathe, as determined by the diameter of the largest object that can be turned in it.
  • (obsolete) Free course; unrestrained liberty.
  • * (John Dryden)
  • Take thy swing .
  • * Burke
  • To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle to the full swing of his genius.
    Quotations
    * 1937 June 11, Judy Garland, “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm”, A day at the races , Sam Wood (director), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer *: All God’s chillun got rhythm. All God's chillun got swing . *: Maybe haven't got money, maybe haven't got shoes. *: All God’s chillun got rhythm for to [sic. ] push away their blues.
    Derived terms
    * swing of things