/bɹuːm/, /bɹʊm/
OriginInherited from Middle English brom, from Old English brōm (“brushwood”), from Proto-West Germanic *brām (“bramble”) (compare Saterland Frisian Brom, West Frisian brem, Dutch braam, German Low German Braam), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem-, from *bʰer- ‘edge’. Related to brim, brink.
Replaced English besom (from Old English besma (“broom, rod”)), which is now restricted in meaning to a particular kind of broom.
(shotgun): So called because it is (like the cleaning utensil) long and held similarly to a besom and “cleans” what is in front.
- countableA domestic utensil with fibers bound together at the end of a long handle, used for sweeping.
“Meronyms: broomstick (handle), bavin (head)”
- countableAn implement with which players sweep the ice to make a stone travel further and curl less; a sweeper.
- countable, uncountableAny of several yellow-flowered shrubs of the family Fabaceae, with long, stiff, thin branches and small or few leaves used for the domestic utensil.
“At the same time, the encroachment of vegetation proceeds apace, and broom and brambles have already made portions of the line impassable, even on foot.”
- countable, uncountableEspecially, of the tribe Genisteae, including genera Cytisus, Genista, and Spartium.
“[…] and thy broom groves,
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,
Being lass-lorn […]”
- countable, uncountableOf plants not closely related to those of tribe Genisteae.
- countable, rare, slang, uncountableA firearm; especially, a shotgun.
“So keep talking all that fly shit, and I’ma grab the tool
And the lead will get stuck in your head like a catchy tune
Soon as I look down on a target, bitch, your ass is doomed
Trust exercise with Ahd”
“I just got the drop, there is an opp
OFB step with the broom”
“He got forced to hold that broom, that dickhead reminds me of Cinderella”
- intransitive, transitiveTo sweep with a broom.
“[…] Sidi, I was busy in the exercise of my functions, occupied in brooming the front of the stables, when who should come but Hhamed Ould Denéï on horseback, at full gallop, as if he were going to bre”
“It was but this morning at eight, when poor Molly, was brooming the steps, and the baker paying her by no means unmerited compliments, that my landlady came whirling out of the ground-floor front, and”
“After that I did take the broom from its place, and I gave the floor a good brooming. I broomed the boards up and down and cross-ways. There was not a speck of dirt on them left.”
- To improve the embedding of a membrane by using a broom or squeegee to smooth it out and ensure contact with the adhesive under the membrane.
- figurativelyTo get rid of someone, like firing an employee or breaking up with a girlfriend, to sweep another out of one's life.
“April 2002 Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn, speaking to his son Harry, in the film "Spider-Man"
A word to the "not-so-wise" about your girlfriend. Do what you need to with her, then broom her fast.”
“let the employee leave on his own, or the boss must broom him. If you hire, or inherit, able people, and you groom them, you won't have to broom them. Groom, broom, and watch your company zoom.”
“I still was going to go with Breslin until one day he said to me, "I got a confession to make to you. When my mother died on her deathbed I promised her I'd never drive a car and I still don't know ho”
- A village in Southill parish, Central Bedfordshire district, Bedfordshire (OS grid ref TL1743).
- A hamlet in Long Marton parish, Eden district, Cumbria (OS grid ref NY6623).
- A locality in Thorncombe parish, west Dorset, on the boundary with Devon and close to Somerset (OS grid ref ST3202).
- A southern suburb of Rotherham, South Yorkshire (OS grid ref SK4491).
- A village in Bidford-on-Avon parish, Stratford-on-Avon district, Warwickshire (OS grid ref SP0853).
- A suburb of Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NS5556).
- A hamlet in Kilgetty/Begelly community, Pembrokeshire, Wales (OS grid ref SN1108).
- A surname.
Formsbrooms(plural) · brooms(present, singular, third-person) · brooming(participle, present) · broomed(participle, past) · broomed(past)