DCHP-1 Online
sweeper 
n. a tree that has been undermined by the current of a stream so that it has fallen either partly or entirely into the water although usually still moored to the bank by its roots.
See also: sawyer (def. 1)
- 1880 (1890) . . . we glided through the water at about ten miles an hour, sometimes rushing . . . within few inches of a sweeper, as they call the trees which hang across the river just clear of the water. . . .
- 1929 "Where are them sweepers, Charlie ?" (sweepers being the river term for drifting trees, which may in a moment upset the craft of an unwary skipper).
- 1954 From a wooded bank nearby came the thudding lash of "sweepers" --trees that have been undercut by the floods into the river, but which still cling with their roots to the bank, lashing and beating at the water which drives through their branches.
- 1963 Care was needed to avoid the odd "sweeper" (a tree leaning out over the water close to the surface).
- 1880 (1890) . . . we glided through the water at about ten miles an hour, sometimes rushing . . . within few inches of a sweeper, as they call the trees which hang across the river just clear of the water. . . .