broom
/bruːm
/noun
1A long-handled brush of bristles or twigs, used for sweeping.Many Indian basketmakers were also skilled makers of chair seats, mats, brooms, and scrub brushes as well as wooden trays, bowls, and spoons....
- Brushes, brooms, scrubbing brushes and soap are provided by the owners.
- ‘Students were told to contribute money for the purchase of brooms, mops, brushes and paint for the contest,’ he said.
1.1An implement for sweeping the ice in the game of curling.A few suggested some places I could store my curling broom....
- The people who are travelling down the ice with their brooms will judge the speed of the ice and keep the skip in touch constantly with how fast they think the rock is travelling, and if it needs to be swept, then they will sweep it.
- The contestants use brooms to sweep a path on the ice for a sliding stone.
2A flowering shrub with long, thin green stems and small or few leaves, cultivated for its profusion of flowers.
- Cytisus, Genista, and related genera, family Leguminosae: many species and cultivars.
- No flower born in the summertime was missing from it, not even the flower of the broom, the violet, the periwinkle, or any yellow, indigo, or white flower.
- Extremely narrow fairways and tiny greens mean the Scotch broom, beach grass and native rhododendron will snag anything off line.
Phrases
a new broom sweeps clean
Origin
Old English brōm (in sense 2), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch braam, also to bramble.
Old English brōm was the name of the shrub. Of Germanic origin, it is related to Old English bramble. The name was applied to an implement for sweeping in Middle English when it was made of broom, heather, or similar twigs. The history of brush (Middle English) is not so clear, but both the brush for sweeping and the brush as in brushwood come from French and are probably the same word.