brooms

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of broom.

   The shop sold handmade brooms with sturdy wooden handles.

   After the festival, volunteers grabbed brooms and cleared the streets.

   Note

   One spelling covers both a closet of sweeping gear and a hillside of shrubs. For the yellow-flowered plants, the plural counts kinds, such as Cytisus, Genista and Spartium, while uncountable broom names the plant in the mass. The utensil is named for those long, stiff branches, which were used to make it. Curlers' brooms sweep the ice instead of a floor. The same spelling also serves as the verb meaning 'sweeps'.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of broom.

   The shopkeeper brooms the entryway each morning before opening.

   Whenever sawdust piles up, she brooms it into a neat heap by the door.

   Note

   Behind the -s stands a verb with more trades than housework. A roofer brooms a membrane flat to press it into the adhesive. In an alternative form of bream, a crew might broom a ship's bottom clean. Figuratively, someone who brooms a partner or an employee sweeps them out of their life. The verb takes an object or stands alone: she brooms the porch, or simply, he brooms every morning.

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