BROOM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Broom

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/brum/ Listen

noun

Broom n.

(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. "No gypsy cowered o'er fires of furze and broom."

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made of the panicles or tops of broom corn, bound together or attached to a long wooden handle; so called because originally made of the twigs of the broom.

Butcher's broom, a plant (Ruscus aculeatus) of the Smilax family, used by butchers for brooms to sweep their blocks; called also knee holly. See Cladophyll.

Dyer's broom, a species of mignonette (Reseda luteola), used for dyeing yellow; dyer's weed; dyer's rocket.

Spanish broom. See under Spanish.

verb

Broom v. t. (Naut.) See Bream.

See images of 'Broom'

Etymology of 'Broom'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Broom" Quotes from Famous Books

... though a woman might have pointed out wet corners and certain muddy splashes on the wall. He lost all count of the buckets of water that he carried from the spring, and it occurred to him that Mary Hope would need a new broom, for the one Belle had provided was worn down to a one-sided wisp that reminded him of the beard of a billy goat. He used two cans of condensed lye and all of the washing powder, and sneezed himself too weak too ...

— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower

... sensibility, mettle and beauty, presented themselves by turns; and the cold, woodeny room, the neglected tavern, the autumn night wind coming down the chimney and starting the fire, all seemed instinctive, like him, with mischief, as if Patty Cannon's soul flew astraddle of a broom and ...

— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend

... we won't have to practice fighting no more with broom sticks and cans and etc. because Sargent James told us tonight that the rifles was comeing so I said to my boys that I hoped they was good shots so we could make a sucker out of the other squads and I told them if they was all ...

— Treat 'em Rough - Letters from Jack the Kaiser Killer • Ring W. Lardner

... whose little game Wallingford were going to checkmate!" declared one man. "I've allus said 'at he were running a rare old risk. We know what t' old saying is about new brooms sweeping clean—all very well, is that, but ye can smash a new broom if ye use it over vigorously. Wallingford were going a bit too deeply into t' abuses o' this town—an' he's paid t' penalty. Put out o' t' way—that's ...

— In the Mayor's Parlour • J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

... this. It takes off one of my great crimes. You know I have deprived the court of the privilege of living in the palace, and I have given them wherewith to find lodgings in the city. Here go the ladies with their bundles under their arms, and the lord high-steward has a broom sweeping after them as they go. This charming individual in the corner with a hunting-whip, is myself. And here is the pith of the joke. 'Rooms to let here. Inquire of the proprietor on the first floor.' [Footnote: Hubner, i., p. 190.] What ...

— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

More quotes...