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Boom   /bum/   Listen
Boom

noun
1.
A deep prolonged loud noise.  Synonyms: roar, roaring, thunder.
2.
A state of economic prosperity.
3.
A sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money).  Synonyms: bonanza, bunce, godsend, gold rush, gravy, manna from heaven, windfall.
4.
A pole carrying an overhead microphone projected over a film or tv set.  Synonym: microphone boom.
5.
Any of various more-or-less horizontal spars or poles used to extend the foot of a sail or for handling cargo or in mooring.



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"Boom" Quotes from Famous Books



... dawn recommenced the heavy boom of cannon down the river. It was rumored this morning that our right wing at Drewry's Bluff had been flanked, but no official information has been received of the progress of the fight. I saw a long line of ambulances going ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... with its corners fastened from the main yard-arm and the swinging boom, had been lowered into the water, and into this most of the ...
— New National Fourth Reader • Charles J. Barnes and J. Marshall Hawkes

... country," he explained, "we're apt to forget all these worked-out regions. Too apt. We don't get our perspectives. We think the whole blessed world is one everlasting boom. It hit me first down in Yucatan that that wasn't so. Why! the world's littered with the remains of booms and swaggering beginnings. Americanism!—there's always been Americanism. This Mediterranean is just a Museum of old ...
— The Passionate Friends • Herbert George Wells

... error, for, upon the brig righting (she was thrown upon her beam ends, and her spanker boom carried away), he commanded to furl the fore-top sail, strike top-gallant yards, furl the main course, and take a reef in the maintopsail, leaving her to scud under single-reefed maintopsail and fore-sail. This caused the vessel to leak to that degree that I despaired ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke

... the captain. 'Give me the wheel, White Man, and you stand by the mainsheet. Boom tackle, Mr Hay, please, and then you can jump ...
— The Ebb-Tide - A Trio And Quartette • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... unexpected boom in his business kept him and his father almost feverishly active and left them both fatigued at night. This lasted for a week or two—long enough to excite all real estate men with a hope for future prosperity not yet entirely dead. But at the end of two or three ...
— Athalie • Robert W. Chambers

... III. It would take as much labor on the part of a biographer to tell what Napoleon III really was as to tell what Cavour really was—perhaps more. But you come up against the law of supply and demand. You can't get around that. There isn't much inquiry for Napoleon, now that his boom is over. ...
— Humanly Speaking • Samuel McChord Crothers

... the old woodsman. "If so be the storm comes along with a boom it'll puzzle ye to be sure av yer way. And by the same token, to be adrift in thim woods with a howler blowin' for thray days isn't ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts Snowbound - A Tour on Skates and Iceboats • George A. Warren

... your own man in it, in other words," Waymarsh said, "you'll marry—you personally—more money. She's already rich, as I understand you, but she'll be richer still if the business can be made to boom on certain lines that ...
— The Ambassadors • Henry James

... drifting as on a tide upon soft swelling waves of music. In liquid undulations of sweet sound they floated insensibly down the windings of the waltz, nor dreamed of danger till the note of warning came. It was a prodigious note—nothing less than the boom of a cannon—and the signal for instant, perhaps ...
— An Algonquin Maiden - A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada • G. Mercer Adam

... the little Duke, ordered them all to bed, saying that nothing more could be done that night, and that he would telegraph in the morning to Scotland Yard for some detectives to be sent down immediately. Just as they were passing out of the dining-room, midnight began to boom from the clock tower, and when the last stroke sounded they heard a crash and a sudden shrill cry; a dreadful peal of thunder shook the house, a strain of unearthly music floated through the air, a panel at the top of the staircase ...
— Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories • Oscar Wilde

... ever the great bell overhead Boom'd in the wind a knell for the dead, Though no one toll'd it, a knell ...
— The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems • William Morris

... raced, turned, and twisted without a moment's pause. "We couldn't tell what was happening," said the commander of a dashing destroyer. "Every now and then out of the silence would come Bang! bang!! boom!!! as hard as it could for ten minutes on end. The flash of the guns lit up the whole sky for miles and miles, and the noise was far more penetrating than by day. Then you would see a great burst of flame from some poor ...
— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood

... violins playing in the treble. And now a woman's voice started off on its own note and tore the delicate tissue of this sound with a solitary scream; and now a man's voice filled up a pause in the shrill hurrahing with a solitary boom. ...
— The Tree of Heaven • May Sinclair

... moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew, and twilight dawned clear; At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see; At Dueffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be; And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half-chime, So, Joris broke silence ...
— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various

... pieces of artillery, served with frantic haste, covering their retreat; thousands of wagons and carriages jammed together and unable to move; the red-coated infantry of England, marching steadily across the plain; the boom of the cannon, the rattle of musketry, the scream of women as the bullets whistled through the air and shells burst over their heads—all this made up a scene, dramatic and picturesque, it is true, yet full of dire confusion ...
— Mr. Fortescue • William Westall

... fire again; and if it had done so the steamer was out of its reach. But a minute later the boom of a great gun came across the bay. Fort Barrancas had evidently opened fire in response to the rocket, which had no doubt been sent up as a signal to notify the garrison that a vessel was going out or coming in, and that her movements were not regular. The first ...
— Within The Enemy's Lines - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic

... Alice's brow Is wearing a Sabbath tranquility now, As softly she reads from the page on her knee,— "Thou wilt keep him in peace who is stayed upon Thee!" When Sophy bursts breathlessly into the room,— "Oh! mother! we hear it,—we hear it!.., the boom Of the fast and the fierce cannonading!—it shook The ground till it trembled, along by ...
— Beechenbrook - A Rhyme of the War • Margaret J. Preston

... its onsweeping wrath, its huge billows rose and fell like moving mountains convulsed by an earthquake,—light and shadow combated against each other in its dark abysmal depths and among its toppling crests of foam—I could hear the savage hiss and boom of breakers dashing themselves to pieces on some unseen rocky coast far away,—and my heart grew cold with dread as I beheld a ship in full sail struggling against the heavy onslaught of the wind on that heaving wilderness of waters, like a mere feather lost ...
— The Life Everlasting: A Reality of Romance • Marie Corelli

... days after Rodgers and Decatur parted at sea, the United States sloop of war "Wasp," Captain Jacob Jones, left the Capes of the Delaware on a cruise, steering to the eastward. On the 16th, in a heavy gale of wind, she lost her jib-boom. At half-past eleven in the night of the 17th, being then in latitude 37 deg. north, longitude 65 deg. west, between four and five hundred miles east of the Chesapeake, in the track of vessels bound to Europe from the Gulf of Mexico, half a dozen large sail were seen passing. These were part of ...
— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 1 • Alfred Thayer Mahan

... when they were 'boun' they see ships coming up to them. And now a fight sprung up between them, and they fought long, and many men fell. Gunnar slew many a man. Hallgrim and his men leapt on board Gunnar's ship. Gunnar turns to meet him, and Hallgrim thrust at him with his bill. There was a boom athwart the ship, and Gunnar leapt nimbly back over it. Gunnar's shield was just before the boom, and Hallgrim thrust his bill into it, and through it, and so on into the boom. Gunnar cut at Hallgrim's arm hard, and lamed the forearm, but the sword would not bite. Then down ...
— Njal's Saga • Unknown Icelanders

... am glad to hear that there is considerable interest taken in the forthcoming match. Boxing is a noble art, and this coming contest will no doubt help to boom both our clubs. There is a great interest taken here in the match, and I warn you our man is getting himself in the very best condition possible. He is nervous, of course, this being his first appearance in an affair of this kind. He is a clerk in a bank, who has lately been engaged by ...
— Montezuma's Castle and Other Weird Tales • Charles B. Cory

... three years the beautiful little city of Roseland with its avenues of palms and magnolias had a boom. Large substantial brick and granite blocks were erected. Very many new and handsome residences were built, besides putting a new appearance on some of the old buildings. The commercial, professional and mechanical classes were all doing well, and ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge

... preceding Mary-'Gusta's fifteenth birthday—was the liveliest South Harniss had known. The village was beginning to feel the first symptoms of its later boom as a summer resort. A number of cottages had been built for people from Boston and New York and Chicago, and there was talk of a new hotel. Also there was talk of several new stores, but Hamilton and Company were inclined to believe ...
— Mary-'Gusta • Joseph C. Lincoln

... and another, the logs are driven along until caught by a boom, Fig. 21, which consists of a chain of logs stretched across the river, usually at a mill. Since the river is a common carrier, the drives of a number of logging companies may float into the mill pond together. But each log is stamped on both ends, ...
— Handwork in Wood • William Noyes

... with pious heart he prays, Far in the distance sounds a boom: He pauses; and again there rings That sullen thunder through the room. A ship upon the shoals to-night! She cannot hold for one half hour; But clear the ropes and grappling hooks, And trust in ...
— McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... long, 2 inches thick at each end, and a little thicker in the middle. It is fastened to the mast by an iron eye, screwed into the mast, and a hook in the end of the boom. The sprit is 10 feet long, 1-1/2 inches diameter, shaved to 3/4-inch for 2 ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3 • Various

... streams over the endless lines of ever-advancing waves, but revealed to the watchers no ship, no boat, no tokens even of wreck, only the ceaseless reaching upward of the beckoning white hands; and the wind bore no sound, save at intervals the dull distant boom of the cannon. But ever the solemn surf thundered on the beach below, and the sand-cliff trembled and crumbled ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - February, 1876, Vol. XVII, No. 98. • Various

... so near to one another, and yet go their ways without fighting." He went, nevertheless, to the Venetian advanced posts, and his trumpeter was admitted to the presence of the Marquis of Mantua, who commanded the Italian army; but skirmishing had already commenced in all quarters, and the first boom of the cannon was heard just as the marquis was reading Commynes' letter. "It is too late to speak of peace," said he; and the trumpeter was sent back. The king had joined the division which he was to lead to battle. ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume III. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... we clear when the foremast dropped down on the fastenings, dashing the jib-boom into the water with its load of demented human beings. The mainmast followed by the board before we had doubled our distance from the wreck. Both trailed to port, where we could not see them; and now the mizzen stood alone in sad and solitary grandeur, ...
— Dead Men Tell No Tales • E. W. Hornung

... he had received from the grateful Dragon King were found to be of magic power. The bell only was ordinary, and as Hidesato had no use for it he presented it to the temple near by, where it was hung up, to boom out the hour of day over ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... a veritable pang of sympathy, and clapped hands to her ears, to shut out Mr. Barmby's boom of the terrific word attacking ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... a novel of adventure! What MORE can you want? Oh!" she exclaimed impatiently, "that's so like you; you would tell everybody about your reverses, and carry on about them yourself, but never say a word when you get a little boom. Have you an idea for a thirty-thousand-word novel? Wouldn't that diver's ...
— Blix • Frank Norris

... [Cambridge] Specialized hardware for {bitblt} operations (a {blitter}). Allegedly inspired by 'Rasta Blasta', British slang for the sort of portable stereo Americans call a 'boom box' or ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... off the pavement to one side. It whined into the distance making that noise that sets the teeth on edge and makes one want to duck. I lowered the boom on the go pedal and tried to make the meter read off the far end of the scale; I had a notion that the guy behind might shoot the tires out if we were going slow enough so that a blowout wouldn't cause a bad wreck; but he probably wouldn't do it ...
— Highways in Hiding • George Oliver Smith

... let the sad procession go, While cannon boom, and bells toll slow: And go, thou sacred car, Bearing ...
— The Poets' Lincoln - Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President • Various

... the time as you did last summer, when you went blackberrying and came home at ten o'clock in the morning and thought it was six at night. Hard-a-lee!" as the boom swung around and they changed their course. Hilda, not realizing what this meant, did not duck her head in time, and consequently got a smart rap. Her hat was knocked off, but, being Hilda's, it did not go in the water. She never ...
— Cricket at the Seashore • Elizabeth Westyn Timlow

... stays and other ropes stretching away from its head to the wreck of the spars tumbling about in the sea in front of us. The bowsprit alone remained intact of all our sticks, the gale having even spared the jib-boom; while the martingale and dolphin striker, with the shrouds on either side of the projecting ...
— The White Squall - A Story of the Sargasso Sea • John Conroy Hutcheson

... National Bank disliked these rich upstart trust companies; also that the capitalists who had laid envious eyes on the Field were associated with the local bank, which expected to derive profit from this deal,-the largest that Alton had ever known even during the boom years at the turn ...
— Clark's Field • Robert Herrick

... at the soldier. There was now somewhere, apparently not very far away, hot rifle fire. The crackle sparkled in the air, as though one were living in a world in which all the electricity was loose. The other firing seemed to have drawn away, and the "Boom—Boom—boom" in front of us was ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole

... were mingled with the knell of midnight from the steeple of the Old South and with the roar of artillery which announced that the beleaguered army of Washington had intrenched itself upon a nearer height than before. As the deep boom of the cannon smote upon his ear Colonel Joliffe raised himself to the full height of his aged form and smiled sternly on the ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... with darkness toiling, Empty space with thunders boom, Lo, the furious waves are boiling, Ocean's surface hid with foam. Lightnings now the clouds are streaking, Here and there a bloody rand, All the sea-fowls now are shrieking. Hasting to the ...
— Fridthjof's Saga • Esaias Tegner

... than because of the methods in use, for the reason that hundreds of thousands of trees have been set out in the last ten or twelve years, a majority of which have failed to meet the expectations of the would-be growers. These expectations, however, have been based largely on the statements of boom literature of those who have trees and lands for sale. We have much land in Western Oregon that is suited to the growing of walnuts, and some trees and orchards that are doing well, but there are more individual trees that are giving their owners ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Seventh Annual Meeting • Various

... that it had all been a frightful mistake! Her limbs shook with a sudden bitter coldness that had fallen upon her like one of the masses that became displaced from the great trees, and she could not keep her teeth from chattering. Then, in her ears, began to boom a strong continuous sound that was ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick

... the "Binghis" (natives of New Guinea), when they saw him, blamed him for a recent tidal wave, saying that he had fallen overboard. He was the most active man I have ever known, and on rough days would board the schooner by catching the dinghee boom with one hand as it dipped toward the launch, and swing himself hand over hand inboard. I never expected the schooner to complete the opposite roll until Chum was "playing plum" ...
— "Over There" with the Australians • R. Hugh Knyvett

... call that decidedly fine, and were I the owner of a whole herd of Jerseys I should endeavor to engage this genius to write them up for me. At any rate I think he should be brought West to help on the Jersey boom. ...
— Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 4, January 26, 1884 - A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside • Various

... prison in which federal captives had been held. Instantly the sectional hatred flared up and Blaine, already a well-known leader, became a prominent candidate for the nomination. Republican reformers generally favored Bristow. A third-term boom for Grant was effectively crushed by an adverse ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... boom it is not uncommon for speculators and promoters to attempt to discount geologic considerations where these run counter to their plans. The catching phrase "bet against the geologist" has a broad appeal ...
— The Economic Aspect of Geology • C. K. Leith

... I propose is this. The stern-ports are all open; and I believe that, by assisting each other, we may manage to creep out through them on to the main-brace boom-iron, and thence make our way along the ship's side, outside the bulwarks, forward, when, by watching our opportunity, we may possibly manage to overpower the guard on the forecastle, throw off the ...
— The Voyage of the Aurora • Harry Collingwood

... came the strange gobble, gurgle and gulp of the shitepoke, the small green heron which is the flitting ghost of shaded creeks and haunting thing of marshy courses everywhere. Night-hawks, far above, cried with a pleasant monotony, then swooped downward with a zip and boom. It was not so late in the season that the call of the whippoorwill might not be heard, and there were odd notes of tree-toads and katydids from the branches. There came suddenly the noise of a squall and scuffle from the ...
— A Man and a Woman • Stanley Waterloo

... dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism alone accounts for more than 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of the archipelago's labor force. Steady growth in tourism receipts and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had led to solid GDP growth in recent years, but the slowdown in the US economy and the attacks of 11 September 2001 held back growth in these sectors in 2002. Manufacturing and agriculture together contribute ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... feet over all, with its mast stepped well forward, of course, carrying a large fore-and-aft sail with gaff and boom. A single person can sail a cat all right; but to get speed out of one, and manoeuver quickly, it takes a sheet-tender as ...
— Wyn's Camping Days - or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club • Amy Bell Marlowe

... heard the boom of a gun strike doom; And the gleam of a blood-red star Glared at me through the mirk and gloom From the lighthouse tower afar; And I held my breath at the shriek of death That came from ...
— The Complete Works • James Whitcomb Riley

... gaily above the boom of the sea, announced her victory—her laugh and the taunting words: 'You play badly, Roger. The child is mine. Never fear that I shall fail to teach him to revere his father.' Had I a word to throw back? ...
— The Golden Slipper • Anna Katharine Green

... it seemed as if the ice under their feet rose—rose and sank, as if some one from below were pushing it. Presently they heard a hollow boom, and then there were cracks in the ice all around them. The children could see how they crept along under ...
— The Wonderful Adventures of Nils • Selma Lagerlof

... by the high-road, to see what was to be seen. Birkin and Ursula went to the cottage with the key, then turned their backs on the lake. She was in great haste. She could not bear the terrible crushing boom of the ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... Federal-local effort must pursue poverty, pursue it wherever it exists—in city slums and small towns, in sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps, on Indian Reservations, among whites as well as Negroes, among the young as well as the aged, in the boom towns and in ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... old squire may set up your account twenty times over, but he has a right to know how you twirl the coin. He says you don't supply the information. I suggest to him that your father can, and will. So we get them into a room together. I'll be answerable for the rest. And now top your boom, and to bed here: off in the morning and tug the big vessel into port here! And, Harry, three cheers, and another bottle to crown the victory, if you ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... on the farther side artillery began to boom. Here the youth forgot many things as he felt a sudden impulse of curiosity. He scrambled up the bank with a speed that could not be ...
— The Red Badge of Courage - An Episode of the American Civil War • Stephen Crane

... curled over and broken sparkling on the rocks, all was now one chaos of wildly foaming and tossing waters. The huge green waves ran rolling in to break with a noise like thunder, and when some huge hill of water came in, rose, curled over, and broke, it was with a tremendous boom, and the spray rushed thirty, forty, and fifty feet up the rock before it ...
— Menhardoc • George Manville Fenn

... we heard cheers down the line, and presently we saw the commodore pulling in among us, in his gig. He came on board us, and we greeted him with three cheers. While he was on the quarter-deck, a hot shot struck the upper part of the after-port, cut all the boarding-pikes adrift from the main-boom, and wounded a man named Lemuel Bryant, who leaped from his quarters and fell at my feet. His clothes were all on fire when he fell, and, after putting them out, the commodore himself ordered me to pass him below. The old man spoke encouragingly to us, and a little thing took place ...
— Ned Myers • James Fenimore Cooper

... it's a dreadful face. Daddy had it. He caught it during the rubber boom and it never went away. Are you still doing things ...
— Men of Affairs • Roland Pertwee

... that I took a great liking to John D.," he said. "He is such a real good fellow, and so sublimely unconscious of his own merits, that I wanted to surprise him by starting a modest boom in the press, so I sent a wireless message about him to a journalistic friend in New York. I wondered why the reporters did not get hold of him when they came aboard at the quarantine station, but I remember now that, by some curious trick of fate, he and I stowed ...
— One Wonderful Night - A Romance of New York • Louis Tracy

... drove out along the muddy lanes the hearts of the two boys became very tender. Harold, filled with exaltation by every familiar thing—by the flights of ground sparrows, by the patches of green grass, by the smell of the wind, by the infrequent boom of ...
— The Eagle's Heart • Hamlin Garland

... been lost to the ear you heard the faint, thudding boom of an explosion from the burst of that conical piece of steel which you had seen slipped into the breech. This was the gunners' part in chessboard war, where the moves are made over signal wires, while the infantry endure the explosions in their trenches and fight in ...
— My Year of the War • Frederick Palmer

... reputation for thoroughness in the naval service, but a story which shows his kindly nature was told to me to-day (says 'F.' in the 'Citizen'). A defence boom was being constructed at Sheerness, and the admiral was dissatisfied with it. He told the officer in command of some defects, and said it was not so good as the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, August 26th, 1914 • Various

... listened, and heard the boom of water rolling in and rolling out again, with the regularity and rhythm of an organ swell, but he caught an echo of something else besides, which piqued his curiosity and provoked him to a touch of unusual excitement,—it ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli

... of the hour. The katydids sang a rhythmic song of welcome to him. Fireflies were in the grass. A whippoorwill in the deep of the wood was calling weirdly, and an occasional night hawk, flying high, gave his grating shriek, or hollow boom, suggestive ...
— Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland

... yet, O thunder, boom; For by thy grace and power My love-distracted limbs now bloom Like the kadamba flower. Her dear touch all my being thrills, And love my ...
— The Little Clay Cart - Mrcchakatika • (Attributed To) King Shudraka

... to be a kind of a lull—kind of a dead calm, I call it—in the paint market just now; and then again a ten-hundred-thousand-dollar man don't build a hundred-thousand-dollar house without feeling the drain, unless there's a regular boom. And just now there ain't any boom at all. Oh, I don't say but what the old man's got anchors to windward; guess he HAS; but if he's GOIN' to leave me his money, I wish he'd left it six weeks ago. Yes, sir, I guess there's a cold wave comin'; but you can't generally 'most always ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... whom he held was slain, and his own shoulder was grazed twice, but he made the corner. In an instant he put the burning building between him and his pursuers, and ran as he had never run before in all his life, deadly fear putting wings on his heels. As he ran he heard the dull boom of a cannon, and he knew that the American army was entering the Seneca Castle. Ahead of him he saw the last of the Indians fleeing for the woods, and behind him the burning house crashed and fell in amid leaping flames and sparks in myriads. He alone had escaped ...
— The Scouts of the Valley • Joseph A. Altsheler

... boom of a thousand cannon; like menacing blades the lightning flashed its tongues of savage flame; the winds raved in relentless fury, rocking the giant trees like straws in the majesty of their wrath. Madness reigned in undisputed sovereignty, and the earth cowered and trembled beneath ...
— One Day - A sequel to 'Three Weeks' • Anonymous

... in the country two years he could have gone home and bought a village; he could go now and buy a city, I think. No, there is nothing very pathetic about his case. He and his copper arrived at just a handy time to save South Australia. It had got mashed pretty flat under the collapse of a land boom a while before." There it is again; picturesque history —Australia's specialty. In 1829 South Australia hadn't a white man in it. In 1836 the British Parliament erected it—still a solitude—into a Province, and gave it a governor and other ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... the river between it and the camp, had not yet been visited by any of the Royalist army, but a midnight toll might have attracted the attention of some of the lawless stragglers. Nor did anyone feel capable of uttering a prayer aloud, and thus the only sound at that strange sad funeral was the low boom of a midnight gun fired in ...
— Under the Storm - Steadfast's Charge • Charlotte M. Yonge

... Mountain tops and forests were bellowing without anyone's being in evidence. There must be more than a hundred thousand men in the space swept by his piercing gaze, and yet not a human being was visible. The deadly boom of arms was causing the air to vibrate without leaving any optical trace. There was no other smoke but that of the explosions, the black spirals that were flinging their great shells to burst on the ground. These were rising on all sides, encircling the castle like a ring ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... came into the world. One can imagine with what joy he was received. Now one day they might write over the door of The Silver Pill these words, "Bayard & Son." But as the infant arrived at the time of a boom in isinglass, Madame Bayard, whose presence in the shop was indispensable, could not think of nursing him. She even gave up the idea of taking a nurse in the house, fearing for the new-born the close air of that corner of old Paris, and ...
— Ten Tales • Francois Coppee

... of the water at her side, Or the pounding of the launch as she rode at her boom? The groan of the anchor as she swung with the tide, Or the blowing off steam, which demanded ...
— L. P. M. - The End of the Great War • J. Stewart Barney

... parishioners for signatures to petitions. Legal gentlemen, whose practice did not yet correspond to their own opinion of their deserts, rushed into print with gratuitous opinions on the evidence and the various points in the case. Newspaper reporters, sensitively alive to the first symptoms of a 'boom,' wrote up the tragic situation with graphic pens. They described the youth and beauty of the prisoner, her gentle bringing up, her desolate condition. Even her relations with the counsel for the defence, of which some inkling had transpired, were freely glanced at, and the reader was invited to ...
— The Queen Against Owen • Allen Upward

... a large degree compulsory; in a true sense it is an artificial evolution. In Japan, on the other hand, evolution is natural. There has not been the slightest physical compulsion laid on her from without. With two rare exceptions, Japan has never heard the boom of foreign cannon carrying destruction to her people. During these years of change, there have been none but Japanese rulers, and such has been the case throughout the entire period of Japanese history. Their native rulers have introduced changes such as foreign rulers would ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick

... is dying; space and room. Serenity, vast sense of rest, Lie bosomed in the orange west Of Orient waters. Hear the boom Of long, strong billows; wave on wave, Like funeral ...
— The California Birthday Book • Various

... companion, a scoffer, who had never risen above a full privacy in the Eton Volunteers, was strangely moved. There were, I think, ten detachments, each provided with a stretcher and a bag containing simple surgical appliances. All that was wanted to complete the realism of the picture was the boom of the cannon, the bursting of shells, and the rattle of musketry. In imagination I supplied them, as I propose to do, for your benefit, Sir, in the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, August 9, 1890. • Various

... still, deathlike still, and a sound which was exactly like the roaring of a furnace came out of the north, with an occasional louder boom when the pent-up fury of the storm burst through the brown cloud. In reality, the sound was made by millions of particles of sand being hurtled through the air ...
— In the Musgrave Ranges • Jim Bushman

... notes on the trumpet, mingled with the occasional boom of the kettle-drum, to mark the cadence, joined with the tramp of hoofs and the clash of arms, announced that the troop had resumed its march. The moon broke out as the leading files of the column attained a hill up which the road winded, and showed indistinctly ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... a syndicate from Chambersburgh are thinking of locating a big shoe factory here. If they do that, Westville will have a boom." ...
— The Young Bridge-Tender - or, Ralph Nelson's Upward Struggle • Arthur M. Winfield

... clearly do startling events separate one by huge gaps from the dull routine of every-day life. All of us listened attentively, and presently on all sides the fierce music of the long Chinese trumpets blared out uproariously—blare, blare, sobbing on a high note tremulously, and then, boom, boom, suddenly dropping to a thrilling basso profondissimo. Even the children know that sound now. Louder and louder the trumpet-calls rang out to one another in answering voice, imperatively calling off the attacking forces. Impelled ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

... They skin the farmers somehow on the fare out here. That's their business, according to the lady. They prowl around through the government plats till they spot a few thousand acres of land in a chunk; they take a look at it, maybe, and then they boom it like hell, and get them eastern marks hooked—them with money, the lady said. Then they ship a bunch out here, locate 'em on the land and leave it up to THEM, whether they scratch a living or not. She said they urge the rubes to bring all the stock they can, because there's plenty ...
— The Flying U's Last Stand • B. M. Bower

... ranges in the interior and with very few evidences of inhabitants. A favourable breeze springing up from the north, they tried to make the most of it, "and by that means carried away the main topgallant mast and fore topmast steering-sail boom, but these were soon replaced by others." A high bluff was named after Admiral Saunders, and near were several bays, "wherein there appear'd to be anchorage and shelter from South-West, Westerly, and North-West ...
— The Life of Captain James Cook • Arthur Kitson

... leaped almost over their heads, and the walls shook with its boom and rebound. Marie kept her finger up and waited for a reply. Minute succeeded minute. The drip of accumulated rain-drops from the door could be heard, but nothing else. Those sullen vessels paid no attention to the ...
— The Lady of Fort St. John • Mary Hartwell Catherwood

... tremor, the Pony Rider Boys were thrown prone upon their faces on the rocky floor, partially stunned by the sudden shock. A distant boom, like the report of a cannon sounded in their ears, then all at once a terrifying rending of the rocks about them, accompanied ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks • Frank Gee Patchin

... then rammed into the wooden gun. The soldiers, though much interested in the manoeuvre, moved back to a safe distance, while many of the Indians crowded round the new weapon. The torch was applied; there was a red flash—boom! The hillside was shaken by the tremendous explosion, and when the smoke lifted from the scene the naked forms of the Indians could be seen writhing in agony on the ground. Not a vestige of the wooden gun remained. The iron chains had proved terrible death-dealing missiles ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... went murmuring down its muddy banks, where the blue cranes waited solemnly for the ebbing tide; where the crows cawed hoarsely in their busy, reeling flight, and the buzzards swung high above the marshes. Yet even in this waste of listless desolation came the echoed boom of heavy guns far down the river, where the "Rebs" and "Yanks" were pounding one ...
— The Littlest Rebel • Edward Peple

... a lighthouse here and there on the Irish and Scotch shores, and though I knew there were plenty of ships about not one was to be seen. (It was night, of course). All at once I saw a dull flare and a moment after a heavy boom. Then about half a mile away the Tuscania stood out in the glare of all the lights suddenly turned on. I could see her painted funnels and the sides clear and distinct against the dark. Another boom and the lights and the ship herself vanished. The next instant lights and ...
— Our Navy in the War • Lawrence Perry

... a moment, and then a tremendous yell of triumph came from the Indians. Presently, the cannon crashed again, and its deadly charge of grape took heavy toll of the rangers. Then the lake and the mountains gave back the heavy boom of the gun in many echoes, and it was like the toll of doom. The Indians on both water and shore began to shout in the utmost fury, and Robert detected the note of triumph in the tremendous volume of sound. His heart ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler

... will go farther," resumed the hermit, "because I have heard more. I have heard the boom of cannon, the rattle of musketry, the hiss of rockets, the wail of the wounded, the shriek of the dying, the malediction over the dead. Then a long interval, and after it, I have heard the crackling of flames, the cry of the hungry, the moan of those who suffered, the ...
— The Bastonnais - Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76 • John Lesperance

... for terror, but they could not soothe her by word or touch; she sat with clasped hands, gasping for breath, listening to the low, long boom on the shores of the Lido, like muffled thunder, ceaselessly recurring—the terrible noise of the great waves beating against the sea-walls—beating and breaking in fury, tossing their spray high in air and ...
— A Golden Book of Venice • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

... pool roof poor root toot loop loon soon food hoot boor rood noon coop hoop hoof coon loom loose moor boon sloop proof stoop troop stool spool boost noose sooth room boom croon moon mood roost shoot broom doom goose scoop tooth bloom brood gloom groom swoop swoon spoon moose ...
— The Beacon Second Reader • James H. Fassett

... perilous enterprise gloriously terminated, with the loss of only two men—Wolfet Van Horne, a tall spare man, who was knocked overboard by the boom of a sloop in a flaw of wind, and fat Brom Van Bummel, who was suddenly carried off by an indigestion; both, however, were immortalized as having bravely fallen in the service of their country. True it is, Peter ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving

... to be in our way, Charley," he answered. "An island, ship, or an iceberg; it would not be pleasant to run our jib-boom against either of ...
— Charley Laurel - A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land • W. H. G. Kingston

... for each of the two boxes or cells, which should have eight inches between. Cover the frame with a strong, light cloth that will not stretch, and sew it on so as to form two boxes covered at the top, bottom and ends. The two broadsides of each one are left open to receive the wind. On the bottom boom, at or near the edge of the cloth cover, fasten a small brass ring for a belly-band. If the foregoing be well done, you will have a kite on the principle of a flying machine, and you will be up ...
— Healthful Sports for Boys • Alfred Rochefort

... to our keepers, as it was far from our intention to trouble or insult them. We thought that, though prisoners, we had a right, on that day at least, to sing and be merry. As soon as we were permitted to go on deck in the morning thirteen little national flags were displayed in a row on the boom. We were soon ordered by the guards to take them away; and as we neglected to obey the command, they triumphantly demolished, and trampled them under foot. Unfortunately for us our guards at that time were Scotch, who, next to the Refugees, were the objects ...
— American Prisoners of the Revolution • Danske Dandridge

... tree having a diameter of 3 in. at the base with sufficient height to make it 9 ft. long. The canoe is driven by a lanteen sail and two curtain poles, each 1 in. in diameter and 10 ft. long, are used for the boom and gaff, which are held together with two pieces of iron bent as shown in Fig. 12. The sail is a triangle, 9-3/4 by 9-3/4 by 8-1/2 ft. which is held to the boom and gaff by cord lacings run through eyelets inserted ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... in the foreground. For the background, perhaps a thousand miles away or more than half a decade removed in time, is the American Civil War. In the blue sky a meadow lark's love song, and in the grass the boom of the prairie chicken's wings are the only sounds that break the primeval silence, excepting the lisping of the wind which dimples the broad acres of tall grass—thousand upon thousand of acres—that stretch northward for miles. To the left the prairie grass rises upon a ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White

... had set sail, in an open boat belonging to their vessel. They said it had been blowing hard when they started, and they had not got more than four miles on the way when the captain was knocked overboard by a sudden jerk of the boom. They quickly lowered the boat, and rowed hard to save him; but, sad to tell, all their efforts were in vain, and they were at length obliged to give up the attempt as hopeless, and were about to return to the ship, when, to their dismay, ...
— Twilight And Dawn • Caroline Pridham

... that now make Madness in the Room Where last week's Lion had his little Boom Ourselves must go and leave that flattering Din And let them brew another Tea - ...
— The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jr. (The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym Jr.) • Wallace Irwin

... make no impression upon its profound everyday calm, and are less important to memory than the smallest individual incident. The swarm of the wild Highlanders that took sudden possession of street and changehouse, the boom of the cannon overhead vainly attempting to disperse a group here and there or kill a rebel, and the consciousness which one would think must have thrilled through the very air, that under those turrets in the valley was the most interesting young adventurer of modern times, ...
— Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets • Margaret Oliphant

... through the snow, a high, black mass of rock jutting out in a long point. It bore a strong resemblance to a duck's neck and head, and as though to form the duck's bill a reef extended for several yards beyond into the water and over this the sea with boom and roar heaved in mighty breakers, sending the spray a hundred feet into the air. If they failed to pass that awful boiling caldron they would be lost. It was a terrifying spectacle, and Charley's ...
— Left on the Labrador - A Tale of Adventure Down North • Dillon Wallace

... would have any more right to take an active part in furthering it than to take an active part in dethroning the Czar of all the Russias. The lesson which Washington administered to Citizen Genet, when that meddlesome minister of the French Republic undertook to "boom" the rights of men by issuing letters of marque at Charleston, has governed the foreign relations of the United States ever since, and it is as binding upon every private citizen as upon every public servant of ...
— Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (1 of 2) (1888) • William Henry Hurlbert

... BOOM, v., applied as bumble by Chaucer, and bump by Dryden, to the noise of the bittern, and quotes ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853 • Various



Words linked to "Boom" :   sailing ship, revive, flourish, happening, sound, grow, natural event, kaffir boom, sailing vessel, storm, go, gold rush, windfall, spar, occurrent, hit, noise, boom out, prosperity, gravy, occurrence, luxuriate, pole



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