Library / English Dictionary

BROOM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A cleaning implement for sweeping; bundle of straws or twigs attached to a long handle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("broom" is a kind of...):

cleaning device; cleaning equipment; cleaning implement (any of a large class of implements used for cleaning)

Meronyms (parts of "broom"):

broom handle; broomstick (the handle of a broom)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "broom"):

besom (a broom made of twigs tied together on a long handle)

push broom (a wide broom that is pushed ahead of the sweeper)

whisk; whisk broom (a small short-handled broom used to brush clothes)

Derivation:

broom (sweep with a broom or as if with a broom)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Common Old World heath represented by many varieties; low evergreen grown widely in the northern hemisphere

Synonyms:

broom; Calluna vulgaris; heather; ling; Scots heather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("broom" is a kind of...):

heath (a low evergreen shrub of the family Ericaceae; has small bell-shaped pink or purple flowers)

Holonyms ("broom" is a member of...):

Calluna; genus Calluna (one species)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of various shrubs of the genera Cytisus or Genista or Spartium having long slender branches and racemes of yellow flowers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("broom" is a kind of...):

bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "broom"):

weeping tree broom (small shrubby tree of New Zealand having weeping branches and racemes of white to violet flowers followed by woolly indehiscent two-seeded pods)

Cytisus albus; Cytisus multiflorus; white broom; white Spanish broom (low European broom having trifoliate leaves and yellowish-white flowers)

common broom; Cytisus scoparius; green broom; Scotch broom (deciduous erect spreading broom native to western Europe; widely cultivated for its rich yellow flowers)

broom tree; Genista anglica; needle furze; petty whin (prickly yellow-flowered shrub of the moors of New England and Europe)

Genista hispanica; Spanish broom; Spanish gorse (erect shrub of southwestern Europe having racemes of golden yellow flowers)

dyer's-broom; dyer's greenweed; dyeweed; Genista tinctoria; greenweed; whin; woadwaxen; woodwaxen (small Eurasian shrub having clusters of yellow flowers that yield a dye; common as a weed in Britain and the United States; sometimes grown as an ornamental)

Spanish broom; Spartium junceum; weaver's broom (tall thornless shrub having pale yellow flowers and flexible rushlike twigs used in basketry; of southwestern Europe and Mediterranean; naturalized in California)

Holonyms ("broom" is a member of...):

Papilionoideae; subfamily Papilionoideae (alternative name used in some classification systems for the family Papilionaceae)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Finish with a broom

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "broom" is one way to...):

finish (provide with a finish)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Sweep with a broom or as if with a broom

Example:

Sweep under the bed

Synonyms:

broom; sweep

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "broom" is one way to...):

pass over; wipe (rub with a circular motion)

Verb group:

sweep (clean by sweeping)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

broom (a cleaning implement for sweeping; bundle of straws or twigs attached to a long handle)

Credits

 Context examples: 

My curiosity, in a sense, was stronger than my fear, for I could not remain where I was, but crept back to the bank again, whence, sheltering my head behind a bush of broom, I might command the road before our door.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The bear said: Here, children, knock the snow out of my coat a little; so they brought the broom and swept the bear’s hide clean; and he stretched himself by the fire and growled contentedly and comfortably.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

One said she lived in the South Foreland Light, and had singed her whiskers by doing so; another, that she was made fast to the great buoy outside the harbour, and could only be visited at half-tide; a third, that she was locked up in Maidstone jail for child-stealing; a fourth, that she was seen to mount a broom in the last high wind, and make direct for Calais.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A white surcoat with the lion of St. George in red upon the centre covered his broad breast, while a sprig of new-plucked broom at the side of his head-gear gave a touch of gayety and grace to his grim, war-worn equipment.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jo nodded and laughed, and flourished her broom as she called out...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was so sensitively aware, indeed, of being younger than I could have wished, that for some time I could not make up my mind to pass her at all, under the ignoble circumstances of the case; but, hearing her there with a broom, stood peeping out of window at King Charles on horseback, surrounded by a maze of hackney-coaches, and looking anything but regal in a drizzling rain and a dark-brown fog, until I was admonished by the waiter that the gentleman was waiting for me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With that, Jo shouldered her broom and marched into the house, wondering what they would all say to her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"Now let's fly round, and do double duty today, so that we can play tomorrow with free minds," said Jo, preparing to replace her pen with a broom.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Brooms and dishcloths never could be as distasteful as they once had been, for Beth had presided over both, and something of her housewifely spirit seemed to linger around the little mop and the old brush, never thrown away.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

What in the world are you going to do now, Jo? asked Meg one snowy afternoon, as her sister came tramping through the hall, in rubber boots, old sack, and hood, with a broom in one hand and a shovel in the other.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)