Sweep
An order split across several exchanges at once so it fills quickly at the available prices. Sweeps can signal urgency or be part of a hedge.
A sweep happens when an order takes the displayed size at the quoted price on one exchange and keeps routing to other exchanges until it is filled. Scanners usually label a sweep by grouping prints in the same contract that arrive within a short window across several venues.
Paying up across venues suggests the trader cared more about getting filled than about price. That urgency is one reading among several, because sweeps also come from hedges, closing trades and legs of multi-leg strategies.
Illustrative example (hypothetical numbers, not a real trade): an order for 1,000 calls fills 300 on one exchange at $1.20, 400 on a second at $1.21 and 300 on a third at $1.22. The prints arrive within one second, so a scanner groups them as one sweep with total premium of $121,000.