Past tense of sweep
irregular verb
The past tense of sweep is swept. The past participle is also swept.
Forms of sweep
| Base form (V1) | sweep /swiːp/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | swept /swɛpt/ |
| Past participle (V3) | swept /swɛpt/ |
| Present participle | sweeping /ˈswiːpɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | sweeps |
Swept in a sentence
- The offended countess swept out of the ballroom.
- The channel was swept twice before the battlefleet proceeded through it.
- The man was nearly drowned after a strong undercurrent swept him out to sea.From the entry strong
- The rainclouds obliterated the sun as they swept across the sky.From the entry obliterate
- With a quick whisk, she swept the cat from the pantry with her broom.From the entry whisk
Meaning of sweep
- verb To clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush.
- verb To move through a (horizontal) arc or similar long stroke.
- verb To search (a place) methodically.
Verbs like sweep
Questions about the past tense of sweep
- What is the past tense of sweep?
- The past tense of sweep is swept.
- What is the past participle of sweep?
- The past participle of sweep is swept.
- Is sweep a regular or irregular verb?
- Sweep is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sweep (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of sweep.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/sweep. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.