broom

Pluralbrooms

Formsbrooms, brooming, broomed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A cleaning tool with stiff fibers fixed to a long handle, used to sweep floors.

   Like a big brush you push along the floor to gather up dust.

   She swept the porch with a new broom before breakfast.

   The brooms in the closet all had worn, bent bristles.

   Note
2. 2
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To sweep a floor or surface using a broom.

   Please broom the garage before the guests arrive.

   He broomed all morning until the hall was spotless.

   Similarsweep

   Note
3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A bush with bright yellow flowers and thin, stiff branches, sometimes used to make sweeping tools.

   The hillside was covered in broom, its yellow flowers glowing in the sun.

   Bees love the bright blossoms of the broom near our garden wall.

   Note
4. 4
   nouncountable

   A brush on a handle that curling players use to sweep the ice in front of a sliding stone.

   Like using a brush to clear a smooth path for a sliding stone.

   Each curler carried a broom out onto the ice.

   She swept hard with her broom to keep the stone moving.

   Similarbrush

   Note
5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Any of several yellow-flowered shrubs that resemble true broom but belong to unrelated plant groups.

   The broom on these dunes looks like the real thing but grows from a separate family.

   We planted a broom by the fence, though it isn't kin to the brooms on the moor.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Any of the true broom shrubs, with bright yellow flowers, belonging to one closely related group of plants.

   The broom in this garden is a Cytisus, prized for its golden blooms.

   Every spring the broom on the slope bursts into bright yellow.

   Note
7. 7
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To get rid of a person, like firing a worker or ending a relationship.

   Like sweeping someone out the door for good.

   The new manager broomed half the old staff within a month.

   She decided to broom him after years of broken promises.

   Similarfire, sack, oust, dump, ditch

   Note
8. 8
   interjection

   Another way of writing brrm, the sound of a car engine. Children often say it while playing with toy cars.

   Broom broom! he yelled, pushing his toy car across the rug.

   The little boy went broom, broom as he raced the truck along the hall.

   Note
9. 9
   nounslangcountable or uncountable

   A gun, especially a shotgun.

   He loaded the broom and waited by the window.

   I just got the drop, there is an opp OFB step with the broom

   2017, OFB (RV, KashHere, broom is slang for a gun, especially a shotgun.

   Similargun, firearm, piece, iron, gat

   Note
10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To press a roofing layer down with a broom or squeegee so it sticks firmly.

    Workers broom the membrane right after laying it down.

    He broomed the seam carefully so no air was trapped.

    Similarsmooth

    Note
11. 11
    verb

    Another spelling of bream, meaning to clean a ship's bottom. Used by sailors long ago.

    At low tide the crew broom the ship's hull clean.

    Sailors would broom the vessel before a long voyage.

    Note

Showing meanings only. Show all 11