An Americanism dating back to 1855–60
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I love my carpet sweeper music,” he said.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2020
The opera’s second act begins with a scene showing Anne at home with Susan, using an old-fashioned carpet sweeper.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2020
But should the bedroom tea-maker, the carpet sweeper and the hostess trolley be consigned to the dustbin of history?
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2018
One of the most popular non-electrical labour-saving devices was the mechanical carpet sweeper, which first went on sale in Britain in 1889.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2018
A cracked handle of a broom, carpet sweeper, or umbrella can be repaired with this first aid to the injured.
From How To Write Special Feature Articles A Handbook for Reporters, Correspondents and Free-Lance Writers Who Desire to Contribute to Popular Magazines and Magazine Sections of Newspapers by Bleyer, Willard Grosvenor
While her lodgers were at church the tireless Mrs. Schiller was doing a little housecleaning: he could hear the monotonous rasp of a carpet-sweeper passing back and forth in an adjoining room.
From The Haunted Bookshop by Morley, Christopher
You should see Annie circle around it with the carpet-sweeper.
From Emma McChesney and Co. by Ferber, Edna
They have many household conveniences: running water in a barrel, a blue flame oil stove, a bread-mixer, and a carpet-sweeper.
From The American Country Girl by Crow, Martha Foote
One of her assistants was a positive marvel—a human carpet-sweeper.
From War Letters of a Public-School Boy by Jones, Henry Paul Mainwaring
Romola flew to the kitchen and borrowed an apron from the cook, tied a duster round her head, seized up a pail and a carpet-sweeper, and came as 'Domestic Service.'
From Monitress Merle by Brazil, Angela
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
