Word: boom Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Onomatopoeic, perhaps borrowed; compare German bummen, Dutch bommen (“to hum, buzz”). The sense "a period of economic growth" is generally taken to derive from the sense "a rapid expansion", although other origins have also been suggested. Pronunciation: /buːm/, /bʉwm/, /bum/, /bʉːm/, /bʉm/ 1. To make a loud, hollow, resonant sound. Example: Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning flashes lit up the horizon. Example: The cannon boomed, recoiled, and spewed a heavy smoke cloud. 2. To exclaim with force, to shout, to thunder. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: I was about to reach for the marmalade, when I heard the telephone tootling out in the hall and rose to attend to it. “Bertram Wooster's residence,” I said, having connected with the instrument. “Wooster in person at this end. Oh hullo,” I added, for the voice that boomed over the wire was that of Mrs Thomas Portarlington Travers of Brinkley Court, Market Snodsbury, near Droitwich – or, putting it another way, my good and deserving Aunt Dahlia. [...] “I'd give a tenner to have Aubrey Upjohn here at this moment.” “You can get him for nothing. He's in Uncle Tom's study.” Her face lit up. “He is?” [Aunt Dahlia] threw her head back and inflated the lungs. “UPJOHN!” she boomed, rather like someone calling the cattle home across the sands of Dee, and I issued a kindly word of warning. “Watch that blood pressure, old ancestor.” 3. To flourish, grow, or progress. Labels: intransitive Example: The population boomed in recent years. Example: Business was booming. 4. To make (something) boom. Labels: transitive Example: Men in grey robes slowly boom the drums of death. 5. To make a deep, resonant, territorial vocalisation. Example: Miles on miles of quagmire, varied only by bright green strips of comparatively solid ground, and by deep and sullen pools fringed with tall rushes, in which the bitterns boomed and the frogs croaked incessantly[.] 6. To cause a sonic boom. Labels: intransitive 7. To subject (someone or something) to a sonic boom. Labels: slang, transitive 8. To publicly praise, to rally behind. Labels: US, obsolete, slang Example: If you pull this off every paper in England and America will be booming you. Example: This unexpected stand on the budget met with some displeasure from his Democratic colleagues and the Administration , particularly in light of the fact that Truman had not forgotten that Douglas boomed Eisenhower as the Democrat nominee for President in 1948. 9. To rush forwards with such violent intensity that it generates a sustained, overwhelming, roaring noise; especially from the perspective of a bystander who has been suddenly subjected to it. Example: The train boomed through the station without stopping. Example: The ship was booming under the press of sail. 10. To rapidly adjust the evaluation of a position away from zero, indicating a likely win or loss. Labels: slang Example: It can get fast enough that it's hard to see what flashed on your screen though, so it would be nice if chess engines had a feature of persistently showing you what move they planned to play before they boomed, even if it took less than a second for them to figure it out. Example: In its White game Stockfish had various moments of booming during these long thinks, but these long thinks always ended disappointingly in a slightly lower evaluation than it started with. 11. To cause to advance rapidly in price. Labels: dated, transitive Example: to boom railroad or mining shares