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definitions

broom

[broom, broo m]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR broom ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

verb (used with object)

verb (used without object)

(of a piling, tent peg, etc.) to be crushed and spread at the top from being driven.

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RELATED WORDS

mop, whisk, swab, sweeper, besom

Origin of broom

before 1000; Middle English brome, Old English brōm; cognate with Dutch braam bramble, German Bram broom

Pronunciation note

Broom and room occur with the vowel [oo] /u/ of fool or [oo] /ʊ/ of book. The first is the more common. The pronunciation with the [oo] /ʊ/ of book is found in New England, eastern Virginia, and South Carolina and Georgia alongside the [oo] /u/ pronunciation. Farther west the [oo] /u/ pronunciation is more common, though the pronunciation with the vowel of book occurs everywhere with no marked regional or social pattern. Both pronunciations occur in British standard and folk speech. The pronunciation with [oo] /ʊ/ predominates in the eastern counties, [oo] /u/ everywhere else. London lies on the boundary between the two types, and it is thus not surprising that [oo] /ʊ/ is found in the United States in the coastal areas that had long and close contact with England.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for broom

Contemporary Examples of broom

Historical Examples of broom

  • He has all his housework there, a broom and a duster, and I dare say he has a cooking-stove and a gridiron.

    Malbone

    Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  • He signed to me to take a broom—to march into the garden—to set to work.

  • When accidentally struck by the janitor's broom, he gives off a cloud of dust.

  • He carried the dustpan and broom away to their places, but he did not reenter the room.

    Tiverton Tales

    Alice Brown

  • He was sweeping thoroughly into every corner where a broom could find entrance.

British Dictionary definitions for broom

broom

noun

an implement for sweeping consisting of a long handle to which is attached either a brush of straw, bristles, or twigs, bound together, or a solid head into which are set tufts of bristles or fibres
any of various yellow-flowered Eurasian leguminous shrubs of the genera Cytisus, Genista, and Spartium, esp C. scoparius
any of various similar Eurasian plants of the related genera Genista and Spartium
new broom a newly appointed official, etc, eager to make changes

verb

(tr) to sweep with a broom

Word Origin for broom

Old English brōm; related to Old High German brāmo, Middle Dutch bremme
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for broom
n.

Old English brom "broom, brushwood," the common flowering shrub whose twigs were tied together to make a tool for sweeping, from Proto-Germanic *bræmaz "thorny bush" (cf. Dutch braam, German Brombeere "blackberry"), from PIE root *bh(e)rem- "to project, a point."

Traditionally, both the flowers and sweeping with broom twigs were considered unlucky in May (Suffolk, Sussex, Wiltshire, etc.). The witch's flying broomstick originally was one among many such objects (pitchfork, trough, bowl), but the broomstick became fixed as the popular tool of supernatural flight via engravings from a famous Lancashire witch trial of 1612.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with broom

broom

see new broom sweeps clean.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.