swept

Swept is the past tense and past participle of the verb sweep. It describes actions performed with a sweeping motion, such as cleaning with a broom, moving across a surface, or removing objects or people from a space. Common uses include sweeping the floor, a wind-swept coast, or a crowd swept up in excitement. In many phrases, swept also conveys thoroughness or completeness, as in a thoroughly cleaned area or a region swept by a storm. The adjective form wind-swept is a frequent collocation in descriptive writing.

Etymology and forms: swept derives from the Old English verb sweapan, related to other Germanic language roots that express movement or brushing. The standard English form for the past tense and past participle has long been swept, contrasting with the present tense sweep.

Common usage and idioms: as a verb, swept can describe both physical and figurative movement. Examples include sweeping the stairs, the floor, or a path, and a storm that swept across a country. Idioms alert to nuance include being swept away, meaning carried along by strong emotion or events, and swept under the rug, meaning to conceal or hide something rather than address it. As an adjective, swept describes things that have been cleared or cleaned, such as a swept floor or a swept area in a plan or layout.

Technical and conceptual uses: in engineering and geometry, swept volume or swept area denotes the region traced by a moving object or line along a path. In computing and data visualization, the term can appear in descriptions of processes that iteratively cover or process a space. While usage varies by discipline, swept generally connotes movement, coverage, or thorough cleaning.