May-day sweep

May Day sweep English 2012 May 1 Alternative forms en May Day sweep Etymology From en May Day<t:workers' spring holiday> sweep<t:ellipsis of en chimney sweep>. Pronunciation en /meɪ deɪ swiːp/ RP en /meɪ deɪ swip/ US en en-us-May-day_sweep.ogg US en en-au-May-day sweep.ogg AU Noun en largely _ historical One of the sweeps (chimney sweeps), clad in bright clothes and garlands and carrying a blackened broom, in a May Day parade. en 1823 New Monthly Magazine 8 355 http://books.google.com/books?id=3H5HAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22May%20Day%20sweep%22&pg=PR2#v=onepage&q=%22May%20Day%20sweep%22&f=false The common herd of mortals invent excuses : they shuffle like a May-day sweep, and lie like the prospectus of a new Magazine. 1829, W. Brockedon, The Passes of the Alps, printed in The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, page 345 : preceded by a drum and fife, and followed by the successful marksman, who, dressed out with flowers and ribands as fantastically as a May-day sweep in England, expressed his joy by dancing and pirouetting amidst his friends, who congratulated and cheered him. en 1843 Punch 5 158 Thanks to certain alchemic pens, which have touched even garbage to gold-paper, murder has been as fine, and withal as jocund among us, as a May-day sweep. en 1847 Littell's Living Age 12 296 http://books.google.com/books?id=WB_VAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22May%20Day%20sweep%22&pg=PP5#v=onepage&q=May%20Day%20sweep&f=false Brown and Emily Bustleton are whirling round as light as two pigeons over a dove-cot; Tozer, with that wicked whisking little Jones, spins along as merrily as a May-day sweep; Miss Joy is The partner of the happy Fred. 1876, Lady Barker, The Kafir at Home, printed in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume 23 (87?), page 221 : but anything would have been better than sitting at table with a thing only fit for a May-day sweep on one's head.