What is the origin of the idiom "clean sweep" and when to use it?

Its origins can be traced back to the sport of curling, where it referred to a shot in which all of the stones of one team were removed from play. By the early 19th century, the term had been adopted more broadly to refer to any situation in which one side had completely defeated the other. Today, it is used in a variety of contexts to describe a decisive victory or a thorough elimination of something.