# groom

Pronunciation: say "GROOM" /ɡɹuːm/

## Noun

1. A man who is about to be married, is getting married, or has just married, also called a bridegroom.
   - Simple: A man on his wedding day, or just before or just after it.
   - _The groom took his place beside the altar as the music began._
   - _Both grooms wore matching navy suits at their wedding._
4. An act of brushing or cleaning an animal, such as a dog or horse.
   - Simple: A time when an animal, like a dog or horse, is brushed or cleaned.
   - _After the long ride, each horse got a thorough groom before going back to its stall._
   - _The shop offers a full groom for small dogs, including a bath and nail trim._
7. A person who looks after horses, often as a job.
   - Simple: A person who takes care of horses.
   - _She worked as a groom at a racing stable before she became a jockey._
   - _The groom led the nervous mare into the trailer and closed the gate._

## Verb

2. To spend time and care on one's own appearance and clothes.
   - Simple: To take care of how you look and what you wear.
   - _Most mornings he needs twenty minutes to shower, shave, and groom._
   - _Backstage, the actors were grooming themselves in front of the long mirror._
3. To look after horses or other animals by brushing and cleaning them.
   - Simple: To take care of a horse or other animal by brushing and cleaning it.
   - _Stable hands groom the horses before each morning's training session._
   - _The vet showed us how to groom a long-haired cat without pulling its fur._
5. To win, or try to win, the trust of a child or vulnerable person in order to exploit them, especially sexually when they are under the age of consent.
   - Simple: To win the trust of a child or someone easily hurt, in order to use or harm them, often sexually.
   - _Prosecutors said the defendant had groomed the victim over several months._
   - _Charities train teachers to spot adults who groom vulnerable young people online._
6. To prepare or train someone for a particular role, position, or event.
   - Simple: To train and prepare someone for an important job or event.
   - _Party leaders began to groom the young senator for a run at the presidency._
   - _Promising analysts are groomed for senior posts through a series of overseas assignments._
8. To make a ski slope ready for skiers by packing down its snow.
   - Simple: To get a ski slope ready for skiers by pressing down the snow.
   - _Crews groom the main runs overnight so the first skiers find firm snow._
   - _Only two runs had been groomed by the time the lifts opened._

## Noun

9. A male servant, or, more broadly, any ordinary man of humble standing. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A man who works as a servant, or more widely, any ordinary man.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Any of several officers serving in the English royal household, most of them in the lord chamberlain's department.
- (verb) In agile software development, to review the items in a team's development backlog and rank them by priority.
- (proper noun) An English family name that first described a man who worked as a servant or attendant.

## Origin

**Meaning 1** — Old English brȳdguma joined brȳd ('bride') and guma ('man, hero'). It became bridegome, which Middle English altered to brydgrome with an intrusive r, and in Middle English the second part was reinterpreted as grom, grome ('attendant'), or shaped by that word. In 1604 groom is recorded as a shortening of bridegroom ('husband-to-be'). Guma goes back through Proto-Germanic *gumô ('man, person') to Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰm̥mō, and its relatives include Icelandic gumi (as in brúðgumi), Norwegian gume, and ultimately human.
**Meanings 2–9** — Middle English grom, grome meant 'man-child, boy, youth', and its origin is uncertain. It seems connected to Middle Dutch grom, meaning 'boy', Old Icelandic grómr ('man, manservant, boy'), and Old French gromme ('manservant'), and to Middle Dutch grom and Middle Low German grôm ('fish guts'). One possible source is Old English *grōm, which came by way of Proto-West Germanic *grōm ('fish roe, fish guts, swollen belly, womb-child') from Proto-Germanic *grōaną ('to grow'). Another view treats grom as gome ('man') with an intrusive r, the same r seen in bridegroom.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/groom (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).