boom
Pluralbooms
Pluralbooms
- 1A period of rapid growth, prosperity, or activity, or a sudden large increase in number or amount, as in a baby boom.
The postwar housing boom reshaped suburbs across the country.
Tech investors grew rich during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.
UsageOften with the field in front (a housing boom) or a boom in something; often paired with bust.
Similarsurge, upturn, explosion, upswing, expansion
Oppositeslump, bust, recession, decline
Note
By the usual account it grew out of an older, general sense of rapid expansion, though other origins have been suggested. It names a stretch of prosperity or busy market activity, or a sudden jump in numbers, as in a baby boom or a housing boom. Its opposite is recession, and the "grow fast" verb carries the same idea.
- 2To flourish, grow, or progress quickly.
Tourism boomed once the airport expanded.
Cities boom when new industries move in.
UsageOften in the progressive: business is booming, sales are booming.
Oppositeslump, decline, stagnate
Note
The subject is whatever is expanding: a population, business, a whole region, even plants in Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life. Making prices rise belongs to the dated transitive use.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Merlin Sheldrake wrote Entangled Life. merlinsheldrake.com
- Entangled Life uses boom to describe the expansion of plants. en.wiktionary.org
- Boom has a dated transitive sense meaning to cause something to rise rapidly in price. en.wiktionary.org
- 3
- 4To make, or cause something to make, a loud, deep, resonant sound.
Cannons boom across the harbor during the festival.
His deep voice boomed through the empty hall.
UsageOften with a place: thunder boomed across the sky, a voice boomed through the hall.
Similarthunder, roar, rumble, resound, reverberate
- 5Said to mark something happening suddenly or unexpectedly, much like 'voilà'.
Add a little salt, a squeeze of lemon, and boom, dinner is ready.
She signed the last form and, boom, the house was hers.
UsageCan follow a sequence of steps, set off with commas or dashes: mix them and, boom, dinner is ready.
Note
The steps are listed, then boom marks the instant result: the ramen is ready, there are riots. Unlike voilà, it stresses suddenness over display. It usually sits between commas or after and, as in you mix the two colors and, boom, you get green. It borrows the force of the explosion sound.
- 6
- 7To exclaim something forcefully in a loud, deep voice; to thunder.
Coaches often boom instructions from the sideline.
The judge boomed a verdict that silenced the courtroom.
UsageTakes what is said as its object, often with out: boom out orders, boomed a warning.
- 8A spar along the bottom edge of a sail that holds it extended; also, a spar projecting from a ship's side to which boats are tied up in harbor.
A sudden gust swung the boom across the cockpit, and the crew ducked.
They moored the dinghies to the boom rigged off the ship's side.
Note
The second boom. It was borrowed from Dutch boom, "tree; pole," and is a doublet of beam, so it shares only its spelling and sound with the sound word. Sailors meet it as working hardware: the outhaul runs along it, and a cleat fixed to it often holds that line fast. Every pole-like boom on this page comes from this word.
- 9
- 10A long movable pole that holds a microphone or camera above the action during filming or recording; also, the microphone mounted on it.
The operator swung the boom to follow the actors down the corridor.
A microphone on a boom picked up the quiet dialogue between the leads.
- 11A floating barrier used to obstruct navigation for military or other purposes, or to contain an oil spill or control floating logs from logging operations.
Workers deployed a boom to contain the oil before it reached the shore.
During the war, a heavy boom blocked enemy ships from entering the harbor.
Similarbarrier
Note
The pole word laid on water, used in war, in spill response and in logging. The logging use appears as timber boom in Asbjørnsen's Folk and Fairy Tales, in H. L. Brækstad's translation, where the narrator walks out on one to fish. The word readily takes a modifier naming what it holds back, as timber boom does.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- The floating-barrier sense belongs to the word derived from a word meaning tree or pole. en.wiktionary.org
- Floating booms have military uses. en.wikipedia.org
- Booms are used to contain oil spills. en.wikipedia.org
- Booms are used to contain floating logs. en.wikipedia.org
- Folk and Fairy Tales is attributed to Asbjørnsen and translated by H. L. Brækstad. en.wiktionary.org
- The narrator goes onto a timber boom to fish. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 12To produce a sonic boom by traveling faster than the speed of sound.
Supersonic jets boom whenever they exceed Mach one over land.
Flying faster than sound, the test plane boomed over the valley and rattled windows.
Note
Aviation's intransitive use. The aircraft is the subject, and the verb means it has passed the speed of sound and set off a shock wave that can reach the ground. Nothing takes an object here. When people or towns are on the receiving end, slang can give the verb an object: the jets boomed the city.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- An aircraft produces shock waves while flying faster than sound; these need not reach the ground. denix.osd.mil
- 13A wishbone-shaped bar on a windsurfing rig that the rider holds to control the sail.
He adjusted his grip on the boom as the gust hit.
Modern booms are wrapped in foam for a better hold.
- 14A deep, resonant call produced by certain monkeys or birds.
At dusk the forest filled with the boom of distant howler monkeys.
Each male signals his territory with a low boom that carries for miles.
Note
In animal-behavior writing it serves as the name of a call type. Mark A. Berkley and William C. Stebbins's Comparative Perception (1990) sets the blue monkey's boom beside its pyow call. Both are long-distance signals, yet they differ in how much the habitat degrades them. As a label, it usually takes the species in the possessive: the blue monkey's boom.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Comparative Perception was published in 1990 and edited by Mark A. Berkley and William C. Stebbins. books.google.com
- The book discusses the blue monkey's boom and pyow as long-distance calls. en.wiktionary.org
- The two calls differ in their susceptibility to degradation caused by the habitat. en.wiktionary.org
- 15Of certain birds, such as the bittern or prairie chicken, to produce a deep, resonant call, especially to attract a mate or proclaim territory.
Male bitterns boom from the reedbeds to claim their stretch of marsh.
A bittern boomed somewhere in the reeds as the sun went down.
Note
A birdwatcher's verb, tied above all to the Eurasian bittern and the deep call it gives to attract mates and proclaim territory. Rider Haggard's She (1886–87) sets it in a quagmire where "the bitterns boomed and the frogs croaked incessantly." The bird is the subject and the verb takes no object. The call itself, as a noun, is the monkey or bird call.
- 16To rush forward with such violent force that it produces a sustained, roaring noise, especially as experienced by a bystander suddenly caught in its path.
The express trains boom through the little station without stopping.
The river boomed past us, drowning out every other sound.
UsageUsually with a path: trains boom through the station, the river boomed past us.
Note
Its sailing use shows in Benjamin Totten's Naval Text-book and Dictionary (1841): "She comes booming down before it." A ship under the press of sail can boom along just as an express train booms through a station. The word joins speed to a sustained roar, felt most by someone suddenly caught in the path.
- 17To cause something to rise rapidly in price.
Note
A dated market verb that takes an object, unlike the "flourish" meaning. Someone booms shares, and the price rises because of them. The classic objects were railroad or mining shares, and the word carries a flavor of promotion and speculation. In present-day writing it reads as period language, so keep it for historical contexts.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The price-raising sense is transitive, whereas the flourish sense is intransitive. en.wiktionary.org
- To boom shares means to cause their price to rise rapidly. en.wiktionary.org
- Railroad and mining shares are established examples of objects of this verb. en.wiktionary.org
- 18To raise or lower a load or camera using a crane's boom.
The operator will boom the camera up over the crowd to show the whole stadium.
The grip boomed the rig down slowly during the final scene.
UsageUsually with up or down: boom the camera up, boom the load down.
- 19To extend or push something outward using a boom or pole.
The crew boom the spinnaker out when running before the wind.
He boomed the jib to windward to balance the boat.
UsageUsually with a particle: boom out a sail, boom off a boat.
- 20The supporting bar of a Yagi-Uda antenna, along which its rod elements are mounted crosswise.
Each director clamps onto the boom at a carefully measured spacing.
A longer boom allows more elements and higher gain.
Note
Antenna builders' vocabulary. On a Yagi-Uda array, the boom is the central support carrying the driven element, reflector and directors crosswise along its length. Its length and the spacing of elements along it largely set the antenna's gain and directivity. That is why a longer boom goes with more elements.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The boom supports the driven element, reflector and directors, with the elements mounted crosswise. en.wikipedia.org
- Boom length and element spacing are major factors in determining gain and directivity. antenna-theory.com
- Longer booms generally accompany larger numbers of elements. nvlpubs.nist.gov
- 21A beam-like apparatus, similar to a balance beam, crossed as part of an obstacle course in school or military training.
- 22In computer chess analysis, to swing rapidly away from a balanced evaluation, signaling that one side is now likely winning or losing.
- 23A sudden swing in a chess engine's evaluation away from zero, marking a likely win or loss.
- 24To hit a person or area with the shock wave of an aircraft flying faster than sound.
- 25To promote or cheer on a person or cause publicly and with enthusiasm.
If you pull this off every paper in England and America will be booming you.
1922, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Problem of Thor Bridge
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Practice
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Origins
An onomatopoeic word, perhaps borrowed, that imitates a sound; compare German bummen and Dutch bommen ('to hum, buzz'). The 'period of economic growth' sense is generally thought to come from the sense of 'a rapid expansion,' though other origins have been suggested.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Boom is imitative and possibly borrowed. en.wiktionary.org
- German bummen and Dutch bommen are comparable sound words meaning ‘to hum, buzz’. en.wiktionary.org
- The economic sense is generally derived from ‘rapid expansion’, with alternatives suggested. en.wiktionary.org
Borrowed from Dutch boom ('tree; pole'), and a doublet of beam.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- English boom was borrowed from Dutch boom. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch boom means ‘tree’ or ‘pole’. en.wiktionary.org
- Boom is a doublet of beam. en.wiktionary.org