BROOM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does broom mean? 

• BROOM (noun)
  The noun BROOM has 3 senses:

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

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

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

  Familiarity information: BROOM used as a noun is uncommon.

• BROOM (verb)
  The verb BROOM has 2 senses:

1. sweep with a broom or as if with a broom

2. finish with a broom

  Familiarity information: BROOM used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BROOM (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:

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)

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

broom; Calluna vulgaris; heather; ling; Scots heather

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)

• BROOM (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sweep with a broom or as if with a broom

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

broom; sweep

Context example:

Sweep under the bed

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)

Sense 2

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

 Context examples 

The researchers planted 45 hybrid corn plants representing the major types of corn — popcorn, broom corn, dent, flint and others — to look for variation in their responses to high ozone levels.

(Study finds rising ozone a hidden threat to corn, National Science Foundation)

“Aha! are you there?” cried the soldier, “get to your work at once! Fetch the broom and sweep the chamber.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

There were no seals behind us, and ahead of us the line of fourteen boats, like a huge broom, swept the herd before it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We don't mean to say much about them yet, because we are such very new brooms, but we don't intend to be idle.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A heavy-scented broom and many flowering shrubs had almost taken the place of grass.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

On the other side lay a strip of vineyard, and beyond it the desolate and sandy region of the Landes, all tangled with faded gorse and heath and broom, stretching away in unbroken gloom to the blue hills which lay low upon the furthest sky-line.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She next swept up the crumbs with a little broom (putting on a pair of gloves first), until there did not appear to be one microscopic speck left on the carpet; next dusted and arranged the room, which was dusted and arranged to a hair's breadth already.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The snow was light, and with her broom she soon swept a path all round the garden, for Beth to walk in when the sun came out and the invalid dolls needed air.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)