# broom
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: bro͞om, bro͝om, IPA: /bɹuːm/, /bɹʊm/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʊm, -uːm
* Homophone: brume

### Etymology 1

Inherited 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.
(shotgun): So called because it is (like the cleaning utensil) long and held similarly to a besom and “cleans” what is in front.

#### Noun

broom (countable and uncountable, plural brooms)
* (countable) A domestic utensil with fibers bound together at the end of a long handle, used for sweeping.
    Hypernyms: utensil; tool
    Hyponyms: push broom; witch's besom < besom
    Meronyms: broomstick (handle), bavin (head)
* (countable, curling) An implement with which players sweep the ice to make a stone travel further and curl less; a sweeper.
* Any of several yellow-flowered shrubs of the family Fabaceae, with long, stiff, thin branches and small or few leaves used for the domestic utensil.
** 1949 November and December, “Notes and News: Festiniog and Welsh Highland Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 408: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.
** Especially, of the tribe Genisteae, including genera Cytisus, Genista, and Spartium.
*** 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:[…] and thy broom groves, Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, Being lass-lorn […]
** Of plants not closely related to those of tribe Genisteae.
* (slang, rare) A firearm; especially, a shotgun.
    Synonyms: broomstick, boomstick; see also Thesaurus:firearm
    Hyponyms: trench broom; see also Thesaurus:firearm
** 2015 September 26, Ms. Hustle (lyricist), Ms. Hustle vs. O’fficial (Summer Madness; 5)‎, Ultimate Rap League, from 48:07–48:28: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 Ahdi, arms out to catch a boom You see this sweeper I got, it ain’t your average broom This ring will wet this bitch like a happy groom
** 2017 July 17, OFB (RV, Kash, Lowkey, Headie One, Bradz & Tuggzy) (lyrics and music), “Loyal”‎, 2:45–2:47:I just got the drop, there is an opp OFB step with the broom
** 2019 September 11, Yanko (lyrics and music), “Next Up”, in #ACGK‎, 1:59:He got forced to hold that broom, that dickhead reminds me of Cinderella
** 2020 July 2, “Stop Check”, LR of TPL (lyrics)‎:Pull up to the 🎵 get whacked with the broom TT liz on my line, so you know it got moved Distribute, click, click, shoot That's another face on frontline news
** 2020 July 3, “Lightwork Freestyle”, Y.CB of 7th (lyrics)‎:Back that strap then blaze, fry man Tell bro “make sure you twos that yute” Rise that stick when the street needs cleaning The pigs know this ain't no average broom
** 2020 October 23, “Talk Bout Hollows”, DBF MD (lyrics), 0:30–0:33:If F’s in the room step with the broom finna here a boom with a boom!

##### Derived terms

* a new broom sweeps clean
* Branton
* Brimley
* Bromley
* broomball
* broombush
* broom bush
* broom-bush
* broom closet
* broom corn
* broomcorn
* broom cupboard
* broomie
* brooming
* broomland
* broomless
* broomlike
* broommaking
* broomrape
* broom rape
* broom-rape
* broomsedge
* broom sedge
* broom spurge
* broomstaff
* broomstick
* broomtail
* broom up
* broom wagon
* broomware
* broomweed
* broomy
* butcher's broom
* come out of the broom closet
* common broom
* dyer's broom
* English broom
* green broom
* High Brooms
* new broom
* Occam's broom
* push broom, pushbroom, push-broom
* Scotch broom
* Scots broom
* Spanish broom
* spiny broom
* thorny broom
* trench broom
* Trigger's broom
* turpentine broom
* whiskbroom
* white Spanish broom
* witch's broom
* yellow broom

##### Descendants

* → Chinook Jargon: bloom

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Verb

broom (third-person singular simple present brooms, present participle brooming, simple past and past participle broomed)
* (transitive, intransitive) To sweep with a broom.
** 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. […] ”
** a. 1857, 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.
** a. 1920, 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, page 100:We broomed the dirt floor clean with spruce branches, brought our gear inside, and moved in.
* (roofing) 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.
* (figurative) to 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.
** August 2002 Jeffrey J. Fox How to Become a Great Boss: The Rules for Getting and Keeping the Best Employees page 15
    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.
** 2012, George Stevens Jr., Conversations at the American Film Institute with the Great Moviemakers: The Next Generation, page 204: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 how to drive a car." I figured for this picture you have to drive a car, so I just decided to broom him and go with an actor.

##### Quotations

* For more quotations using this term, see Citations:broom.

##### Translations
### Etymology 2
#### Verb

broom (third-person singular simple present brooms, present participle brooming, simple past and past participle broomed)
* (nautical) Alternative form of bream (“to clean a ship's bottom”)

#### References

* “broom”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

### Etymology 3
#### Interjection

broom
* Alternative form of brrm (“sound of a car engine”) (often used reduplicatively)
    I'm in me mum's car, broom broom

##### Translations
#### See also

* boom

#### References

* “broom”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* Rombo, bromo, bromo-, ombro-

## Afrikaans
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

broom (uncountable)
* bromine

#### Hypernyms

* halogeen

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from French brome. Coined by Antoine-Jérôme Balard.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /broːm/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: broom
* Rhymes: -oːm

### Noun

broom n (uncountable)
* bromine [from mid-19th c.]
    Synonym: bromium

## Estonian
### Etymology

German Brom.

### Noun

broom (genitive broomi, partitive broomi)
* bromine

#### Declension
### Further reading

* “broom”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
* broom in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

## Middle English
### Noun

broom
* Alternative form of brom