sweep up

verb — 3 senses

sweep up

verb
1

Ambitransitive To clean by sweeping.

  • I'll wash the floor after sweeping up.
  • We swept up the leaves which had blown into the shop.
2

To transport to shore by waves.

  • The only thing that frees the country from this curse is a favorable wind; this blows them into the sea, where they drown and are swept up on the beach for days afterwards in great heaps1897, Edmondo De Amicis, Maria Hornor Lansdale, Morocco its people and places:
3

Passive, Usually to overwhelm, to cause to become overly involved in.

  • We got swept up in the excitement.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.