Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An implement used for sweeping, usually consisting of a bunch of twigs, straw, or bristles bound together and attached to a stick or handle.
  • noun Any of various Mediterranean shrubs of the genus Cytisus in the pea family, especially C. scoparius, having mostly compound leaves with three leaflets and showy, usually bright yellow flowers.
  • noun Any of several similar or related shrubs, especially in the genera Genista and Spartium.
  • transitive verb To sweep with a broom.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as bream.
  • To sweep, or clear away, as with a broom.
  • noun The popular name of several plants, mostly leguminous shrubs, characterized by long, slender branches and numerous yellow flowers.
  • noun A besom, or brush with a long handle, for sweeping floors, etc.: so called from being originally made of the broom-plant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (Naut.) See bream.
  • noun (Bot.) A plant having twigs suitable for making brooms to sweep with when bound together; esp., the Cytisus scoparius of Western Europe, which is a low shrub with long, straight, green, angular branches, minute leaves, and large yellow flowers.
  • noun An implement for sweeping floors, etc., commonly made of the panicles or tops of broom corn, bound together or attached to a long wooden handle; -- so called because originally made of the twigs of the broom.
  • noun a plant (Ruscus aculeatus) of the Smilax family, used by butchers for brooms to sweep their blocks; -- called also knee holly. See Cladophyll.
  • noun a species of mignonette (Reseda luteola), used for dyeing yellow; dyer's weed; dyer's rocket.
  • noun See under Spanish.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb nautical Alternative form of bream (to clean a ship's bottom)
  • noun A domestic utensil with fibers bound together at the end of a long handle, used for sweeping.
  • noun curling An implement with which players sweep the ice to make a stone travel further and curl less; a broom or sweeper.
  • noun botany Any of several yellow-flowered shrubs of the family Leguminosae, in the genera Cytisus and Genista, with long, thin branches and small or few leaves.
  • verb To sweep.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb finish with a broom
  • verb sweep with a broom or as if with a broom
  • noun any of various shrubs of the genera Cytisus or Genista or Spartium having long slender branches and racemes of yellow flowers
  • noun common Old World heath represented by many varieties; low evergreen grown widely in the northern hemisphere
  • noun a cleaning implement for sweeping; bundle of straws or twigs attached to a long handle

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English brōm.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word broom.

Examples

  • Now you know, missy, of co'se, dese heah broom -- weddin's dey ain't writ down in nuther co't-house nur chu'ch books -- an 'so ef any o' dese heah smarty meddlers was to try to bring up ole sco'es an 'say dat Sister Sophy-Sophia wasn't legally married, dey wouldn't be no witnesses _but me an' de broom_, an 'I'd have to witness _for it_, an' -- an '_I_ wouldn't be no legal witness. "

    Moriah's Mourning and Other Half-Hour Sketches Ruth McEnery Stuart 1886

  • III. vi.27 (417,4) _Come oe'er the broom, Bessy, to me_] As there is no relation between _broom_ and a _boat_, we may better read,

    Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • A candidate who does NOT fly on a broom is a now a serious proposition!

    The race for recovery Tom Toles 2010

  • In the movie, voices you hear are the stage manager and myself; she's explaining that the guy with the broom is the Festival's chairman of the board.

    Elora Festival Deluge da_lj 2007

  • The girl carried a broom, and if she came along and swept before a door, it meant that all who lived within must die; for the broom is an implement that makes a clean sweep.

    Further Adventures of Nils 1911

  • His besom also seems to come from the East, where a figure "sweeping everything out" with a broom is the first vision produced in the crystal or liquid in the palm of a medium by the magicians of Egypt.

    The Peace Egg and a Christmas Mumming Play 1887

  • Perhaps when Congress reconvenes, we can take a look at it, but not every bank or every institution on Wall Street caused this problem, so I don't think sweeping with such a wide broom is the productive way to go at this point.

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [143] -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Appeal? Chris Weigant 2010

  • Perhaps when Congress reconvenes, we can take a look at it, but not every bank or every institution on Wall Street caused this problem, so I don't think sweeping with such a wide broom is the productive way to go at this point.

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [143] -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Appeal? Chris Weigant 2010

  • Perhaps when Congress reconvenes, we can take a look at it, but not every bank or every institution on Wall Street caused this problem, so I don't think sweeping with such a wide broom is the productive way to go at this point.

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [143] -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Appeal? Chris Weigant 2010

  • Perhaps when Congress reconvenes, we can take a look at it, but not every bank or every institution on Wall Street caused this problem, so I don't think sweeping with such a wide broom is the productive way to go at this point.

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [143] -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Appeal? Chris Weigant 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Car-dealer term for getting a non-buying customer off the lot so they don't waste the dealers' time. "Broom 'em!"

    September 8, 2018