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Of or pertaining to society; social. The all-sweeping besom of societarian reformation. Lamb.

ho serves in an army; one of an organized body of combatants. I am a soldier and unapt to weep. Shak.

To sweep. See Sweep, and Swoop. [Obs.]

ic effort, as in an emergency; an increased exertion for a brief space. The long, steady sweep of the so-called "paddle" tried him almost as much as the breathless strain of the spurt. T. Hughes.

To keep within limits; to restain; to cause to stop, or cease; to stint. Then would he weep, he might not be stent. Chaucer. Yet n'ould she stent Her bitter railing and foul revilement. Spenser.

nder the sun. Chaucer. His misery was such that none of the bystanders could refrain from weeping. Macaulay.

rived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed. The sunken glen whose sunless shrubs must weep. Byron.

To walk proudly; to sweep along. [Prov. Eng.] Todd.

To beat the air, or ply the wings, with a sweeping motion or noise; to flap.

See Sweep, n., 12.

The whole sweep of a scythe, or the whole breadth from which grass or grain is cut by a scythe or a machine, in mowing or cradling; as, to cut a wide swath.

The act of swaying; a swaying motion; the swing or sweep of a weapon. With huge two-handed sway brandished aloft. Milton.

imp. & p. p. of Sweep.

The sweep of anything in motion; a swinging blow; a swing. [Obs.] Waller.

A swape or sweep. See Sweep.

To seize; to catch up; to take with a sweep. And now at last you came to swoop it all. Dryden. The grazing ox which swoops it [the medicinal herb] in with the common grass. Glanvill.

See Sweepstake. [Obs.]

Abounding with tears; weeping; shedding tears; as, tearful eyes. -- Tear"ful*ly, adv. -- Tear"ful*ness, n.

to for that, in that, for the reason that, because. He does hear me; And that he does, I weep. Shak.

as with a spring, used for taking game or other animals; as, a trap for foxes. She would weep if that she saw a mouse Caught in a trap. Chaucer.