BROOM • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Broom

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made of the panicles or tops of broom corn, bound together or attached to a long wooden handle; so called because originally made of the twigs of the broom.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

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"Broom" Quotes from Famous Books

... naught to do but learn of the Black Man now; they do say he rides his ferule and bunch of twigs high up in the air, like Mistress Hibbins used her broom-stick," cried William Bartholomew, ...

— Harper's Young People, May 25, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... of cake, as so much depends on the heat of the oven. It should be narrowly watched while in the oven, and if it browns too fast, it should be covered with a thick paper. To ascertain when rich cake is sufficiently baked, stick a clean broom splinter through the thickest part of the loaf—if none of the cake adheres to the splinter, it is sufficiently baked. When cake that is baked on flat tins moves easily on them, it ...

— The American Housewife • Anonymous

... apartment, finished with the heavy oaken beams of the wall left full in sight, boarded over and painted. Two windows looked out on the street, and another into a sort of court-yard, where three black wenches, each with a broom, pretended to be sweeping, but were, in fact, chattering and laughing, like so ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 18, April, 1859 - [Date last updated: August 7, 2005] • Various

... little girl coming along a street. She was dreadfully blown by the wind, and a broom she was trailing behind her was very troublesome. It seemed as if the wind had a spite at her—it kept worrying her like a wild beast, and tearing at her rags. She was ...

— At the Back of the North Wind • George MacDonald

... living picture of starvation. He would have made his fortune in the streets of London, if he had only gone out and shown himself to the public in ragged clothes. His face was deeply pitted with the small-pox. His short grisly hair stood up stiff and straight on his head like hair fixed in a broom. His small whitish-grey eyes had a restless, inquisitive, hungry look in them, indescribably irritating and uncomfortable to see. The one personal distinction he possessed consisted in his magnificent ...

— Poor Miss Finch • Wilkie Collins

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