Broom

Pronunciation

• enPR: broÍžom, IPA: /bɹuːm/, /bɹʊm/
• Rhymes: -ÊŠm, -uːm

Middle English, from Old English brōm ‘brushwood’, from Proto-Germanic *brēm- ("bramble") (compare Dutch braam, Low German Braam), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem-, from *bʰer- ‘edge’. Related to brim, brink.

Full definition of broom

Noun

1. (countable) A domestic utensil with fibers bound together at the end of a long handle, used for sweeping.
2. (countable, curling) An implement with which players sweep the ice to make a stone travel further and curl less; a sweeper.
3. (botany) Any of several yellow-flowered shrubs of the family Fabaceae, in the genera and Genista, with long, thin branches and small or few leaves.
• 1610, , by William Shakespeare, act 4 scene 1... and thy broom groves,Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,Being lass-lorn ...

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To sweep.
• 1855 September 29, Charles Dickens, "Model Officials", in Household Words: A Weekly Journal, Bradbury and Evens (1856), page 206,“… 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 break his neck. …”
• a1857, William Makepeace Thackeray, Our Street, in Christmas Books: Mrs. Perkins's Ball, Our Street, Dr. Birch, Chapman & Hall (1857), Our Street page 8,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 sent the poor girl whimpering into the kitchen.
• a1920, Opal Stanley Whiteley, The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart, Atlantic Monthly Press (1920), pages 58–59,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.
• 1997, Will Hobbs, Far North, HarperCollins, ISBN 0380725363, page 100,We broomed the dirt floor clean with spruce branches, brought our gear inside, and moved in.

Verb

1. (nautical) Alternative form of bream (to clean a ship's bottom)

Anagrams

• Rombo