sweptback
Americanadjective
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(of the leading edge of an airfoil) forming a markedly obtuse angle with the fuselage.
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(of an aircraft or winged missile) having wings of this type.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of sweptback
First recorded in 1915–20; adj. use of verb phrase swept back
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.
Van Tatenhove was covered in tattoos with several just visible below his sweptback gray hair.
From Washington Post • Jul. 12, 2022
At 37, he emits the polished gloss of a man on the rise in a capital dominated by much-older power brokers: not one strand of his thick, sweptback hair is out of place or gray.
From Washington Post • Jul. 11, 2022
But Stalin’s famous visage, with its bushy mustache and sweptback hair, is upstaged by the throngs of ordinary citizens who gather to bear witness and pay tribute.
From New York Times • May 6, 2021
Mr. Depp, with sweptback silver hair, a dead front tooth and a grayish complexion offsetting icy blue eyes, gives Jimmy a vampirish air.
From New York Times • Sep. 17, 2015
The whole area forward and beside the helm has been thoughtfully finished in a dark grainy pattern so that there are no reflections in the sweptback windscreen to distract the helmsman.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
