sweeper
Americannoun
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sweepers
plural
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a person or thing that sweeps.
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a janitor.
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any of several fishes of the family Pempherididae, of tropical and warm, temperate seas, having an oblong, compressed body.
noun
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a person employed to sweep, such as a roadsweeper
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any device for sweeping
a carpet sweeper
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informal soccer a player who supports the main defenders, as by intercepting loose balls, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sweeper
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at sweep 1, -er 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With two outs in the fifth, he lifted a sweeper into the seats beyond the left-field corner to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
And she will do so with arguably the best sweeper in the sport alongside her.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
This was the dream scenario: baseball’s very best, edgy crowd, one-run game, two outs, a title on the line—and Ohtani getting the better of his pal on a filthy 3-2 sweeper.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
As the camera follows a suburban Chicago street sweeper along its early morning route, it stops at a modest house, perched on the other side of the train tracks.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2026
Outside the sweeper has landed on something metal, maybe a coin.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
Ireland tested her with the short ball and forced her to hit to the sweepers, which she handled efficiently before her eventual downfall as she was brilliantly caught by Prendergast at deep square leg.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
"There is to be no hesitation," he said in a social media post, adding that US mine "sweepers" are clearing the strait "right now".
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
Batters across MLB put up a dismal .210 batting average against splitters last season, compared with .224 against sliders and sweepers and .225 against curveballs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
"Why do you have to meet with your team to find out whether or not you send some mine sweepers?" he added about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
From Barron's ● Mar. 16, 2026
Haircuts for all the Tens, with the little girls losing their braids, and then the sweepers coming quickly to the stage to remove the shorn hair.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
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.
