sweep up

1. 1.

   force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action

   “They were swept up by the events”

   “don't drag me into this business”

   Synonymsembroiltanglesweepdragdrag in

   Broaderinvolve
2. 2.

   take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own

   “She embraced Catholicism”

   “They adopted the Jewish faith”

   Synonymsespouseembraceadopt

   Broaderaccept

   Narrowertake up

Questions about sweep up

What does sweep up mean?

sweep up means "force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for sweep up?

Close synonyms include embroil, tangle, sweep, drag, drag in. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is sweep up a common word?

sweep up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.