sweepnoun(TV VIEWERS)

sweeps | Business English

sweeps
noun[ plural ]
 MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS USinformaluk /swiːps/us
a list, produced at particular times of the year, that measures how popular television programmes are. The list is used especially to decide advertising prices based on the size of a programme's audience:
NBC leads in February's sweeps rating period.

Examples of sweeps

sweeps
As the brush sweeps across a curved brass surface, it keeps the oxidization process at bay, like an anti-aging device for machines.
From Wired
Usually, when you witness a bit of sports history, euphoria sweeps through the building.
From TIME
We don't question deception if an infantry fakes an attack on the left and sweeps right.
From NPR
This holiday, they deployed teams for preemptive sweeps.
From Washington Post
It's a stampede that sweeps us along like so many thundering wildebeests on an endless sprint to nowhere in particular.
From Huffington Post
Events of positive selection are often accompanied by selective sweeps.
From The Atlantic
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.