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- noun A besom, or brush with a long handle, for sweeping floors, etc.: so called from being originally made of the broom-plant.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made of the panicles or tops of broom corn, bound together or attached to a long wooden handle; -- so called because originally made of the twigs of the broom.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 alsoknee holly . SeeCladophyll . - 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 forsweeping . - noun curling An implement with which players
sweep the ice to make astone travel further andcurl less; a broom or sweeper. - noun botany Any of several yellow-flowered
shrubs of the familyLeguminosae , in the genera Cytisus andGenista , 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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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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
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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
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A candidate who does NOT fly on a broom is a now a serious proposition!
The race for recovery Tom Toles 2010
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
tbtabby commented on the word broom
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