Dictionary

crossing-sweeper en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (historical) Someone whose job is to sweep street crossings.
   • There was one giant — a black 'un — as left his carawan some year ago and took to carrying coach-bills about London, making himself as cheap as crossing-sweepers. 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Nineteenth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:
   • But the streets were also a place of work: for the humble crossing-sweeper, for example, who tried to ensure, in return for a tip, that when persons of quality crossed the road they did so without having to pick their way through dust, mud and horse dung. 2012, Simon Heffer, “In Fagin's Footsteps”, in Literary Review, section 403:

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