means To clean a surface by brushing debris away with broad strokes, or more broadly to move, clear, or carry something off in one continuous motion.

from From Middle English swepen, tied to the Old English swāpan, 'to sweep, drive, or sway,' and a cousin of swift and swoop — all sharing a Germanic root for swift, sweeping movement. The same family gives us the wind that sweeps across a field and the broom that sweeps a floor: the word has always been about motion that covers ground fast and wide.