“Sweep Me Off My Feet”

This week’s English phrase is “sweep me off my feet.”

Visualize yourself sitting comfortably at a theater, and you are there to watch a romantic film, whether it be for your own enjoyment or chosen by someone you’ve come with.  Imagine the most cliché scene, illustrating the awaited union of the main couple. You might imagine a prince picking up his princess up off her feet and carrying her away in his arms. You might imagine a couple embrace and kiss to a dramatic background ballad. The common element portrayed in many romantic gestures is being taken by the overwhelming sensation of love, which also comes through in the phrase, “sweep me off my feet.”

As you might guess, the word “sweep” refers to the sweep of a broom. When you sweep the floor with a broom, particles of dirt and dust are picked up and taken away from where they were. In a similar way, falling in love can sometimes involve having virtually your mind and body taken over by someone else. Likewise, you might say your “breath was taken away” or feel as if your “heart has been stolen” by someone you love.

To further explain this phrase, the feeling of being “swept off your feet” can be applied when you find yourself entirely surprised by the force of someone’s charm.  Or when you find that charm so irresistible that it seems as though the ground disappeared from under your feet and you succumb to that charm.

So, the formal definition of this phrase would be: To affect with overwhelming enthusiasm, or to infatuate, or put simply, to cause someone to fall suddenly and completely in love. 

While “to sweep” is a metaphorically linked to the act of being taken away by the “sweep” of a broom, it would it appropriate at any moment characterized by falling in love. 

Here are a few example sentences for this phrase:

From the moment they met, he knew he wanted to do everything in his ability to sweep her off her feet.

The entire class agreed that she was a confident, sweet kind of girl who could easily sweep you off your feet.

Many people expect to get swept off their feet on Valentine’s Day and spend the day indulging in their romance.

For more examples:

If you’ve ever heard La Roux’s song, “Bulletproof,” she insists that she will no longer fall in love with the one who hurt her, and sings, “I’ll never let you sweep me off my feet.”

In Taylor Swift’s song, “White Horse,” she discovers her lover’s and declares, “I’m not the one you’ll sweep off her feet.”

See if you can find this phrase used in movies, songs, novels, and other forms of media. Or, if you ever find yourself explaining to someone about how much you’ve fallen in love, try using this expression!