SWEEPER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sweeper mean? 

• SWEEPER (noun)
  The noun SWEEPER has 3 senses:

1. an employee who sweeps (floors or streets etc.)

2. a cleaning implement with revolving brushes that pick up dirt as the implement is pushed over a carpet

3. little-known nocturnal fish of warm shallow seas with an oblong compressed body

  Familiarity information: SWEEPER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SWEEPER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An employee who sweeps (floors or streets etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sweeper" is a kind of...):

employee (a worker who is hired to perform a job)

Derivation:

sweep (sweep with a broom or as if with a broom)

sweep (clean by sweeping)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A cleaning implement with revolving brushes that pick up dirt as the implement is pushed over a carpet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

carpet sweeper; sweeper

Hypernyms ("sweeper" is a kind of...):

cleaning device; cleaning equipment; cleaning implement (any of a large class of implements used for cleaning)

Derivation:

sweep (sweep with a broom or as if with a broom)

sweep (clean by sweeping)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Little-known nocturnal fish of warm shallow seas with an oblong compressed body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("sweeper" is a kind of...):

teleost; teleost fish; teleostan (a bony fish of the subclass Teleostei)

Holonyms ("sweeper" is a member of...):

family Pempheridae; Pempheridae (sweepers)

 Context examples 

My aunt further expressed her opinion, that if our military friend would cut off those butterflies, and give 'em to the chimney-sweepers for May-day, it would look like the beginning of something sensible on her part.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now a bag of remarkable clothespins, next, a wonderful nutmeg grater which fell to pieces at the first trial, a knife cleaner that spoiled all the knives, or a sweeper that picked the nap neatly off the carpet and left the dirt, labor-saving soap that took the skin off one's hands, infallible cements which stuck firmly to nothing but the fingers of the deluded buyer, and every kind of tinware, from a toy savings bank for odd pennies, to a wonderful boiler which would wash articles in its own steam with every prospect of exploding in the process.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)