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In the sentence what is the meaning of sweep off
Plague swept off millions.
kill better describes the sentence, but no dictionary have the word sweep off meaning to kill/be killed.
In Free dictionary its meaning is to escort or take away but it doesn't suit the context.
It means "escort or take away", in the figurative sense of "taking away someone's life". It is figurative as it gives an image of a sweeper who brushes away a lot of bits of dirt with a single stroke, similar to how plague swept through Asia and Europe in the 1300s.
Dictionaries don't list all the possible metaphorical meanings, as they keep changing and so have to be understood from the context.
