| 释义 |
▪ I. broom, n.|bruːm|
Forms: 1 bróm, 2–4 brom, 3–6 brome, 5–6 brume, (6 Sc. broym, broume), 6 browme, 6–7 broome (7– Sc. brume), 5– broom.
[OE. bróm (from WGer. *bráma-), pointing to OTeut. type *bræ̂mo-z: cogn. with OHG. brâmo, MHG. brâme masc. ‘bramble’ (whence mod.G. brombeere), also with Ger. bram ‘broom’, OTeut. type *bræ̂mon-; and OHG. brâma, mod.Ger. and MDu. brame, mod.Du. braam fem., bramble, thorn, (MDu. brame also ‘broom’), OTeut. type *bræ̂môn- fem.; also with bramble, q.v. The derivation of the OTeut. stem bræ̂m- is uncertain, but the earliest sense of the various forms appears to be ‘thorny shrub’, whence ‘bramble’, ‘furze or gorse’, and by confusion with the latter ‘broom’, which seems to be the only Eng. sense.]
1. A shrub, Sarothamnus or Cytisus Scoparius (family Leguminosæ), bearing large handsome yellow papilionaceous flowers; abundant on sandy banks, pastures, and heaths in Britain, and diffused over Western Europe. Also the genus to which this belongs, and the allied genus Genista, including the White Broom, and Giant or Irish Broom cultivated in gardens, and many other species.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 32 Genim bromes ahsan. c1150Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 545 Genesta, brom. c1384Chaucer H. Fame 1226 Lytel herde gromes That kepen bestis in the bromes. 1523Fitzherb. Surv. 6 b, Yet may he..selle all the wode, brome, gorse, fyrs, braken. 1562Turner Herbal ii. 7 b, Vnder the roughe broume. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 34 Brome..of some is called Mirica for the bitternesse of his tast. 1620Venner Via Recta vi. 98 The young tender buds of Broome are..gathered and preserued in pickle. 1783Cowper Task vi. 170 The Broom, Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloy'd Her blossoms. 1800Wordsw. To Joanna, 'Twas that delightful season when the broom, Full-flowered..Along the copses runs in veins of gold. c1854Stanley Sinai & Pal. i. (1858) 20 The Retem, or wild broom, with its high canopy and white blossoms..is the very shrub under which..Elijah slept in his wanderings.
2. Entering into the name of various other plants used for sweeping, or in other respects fancied to be akin to the broom proper; as butcher's broom, Spanish broom (a kind of grass), q.v.
3. a. An implement for sweeping, a besom: originally one made of twigs of broom, heather, etc., fixed to a ‘stick’ or handle; now the generic name for a besom of any material. Cf. besom n.1 2.
14..Songs Costume 64 So many sellers of bromys, Say I never. 1481Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 15 Alle ranne..eueryche wyth his wepen..some with a brome. 1538Bale Thre Lawes 177 Brom, brom, brom, brom, brom. Bye brom bye bye bromes for shoes and powcherynges; botes and byskyns for newe bromes, Brom, brom, brom. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 44 The greene new brome sweepth cleene. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 396, I am sent with broome before, To sweep the dust behinde the doore. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 214 Move it sometimes with a Broom or Whisk, that the Seeds clog not together. 1708Hearne Coll. (1885–6) II. 110 My chimneys with high flying broom No longer thou shalt clean. 1798Southey Lyric P., To Spider iii, Where is he whose broom The earth shall clean? 1829J. W. Croker in Croker Papers (1884) II. xiv. 18 As they say of a broom that it is dirty to keep other things clean.
b. fig. and transf.
1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1347/2 Thus did the broome of iustice sweepe awaie these noisome cobwebs. 1621Sanderson Serm. (1681) I. 213 Thy new broom, that now sweepeth clean all discontents from thee, will soon grow stubbed. 1855Dickens Dorrit i. xxiv, ‘If he hadn't been cut short [= died] while I was a new broom’.
4. A sweeping tail of a horse; cf. broom-tail in 6.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farm 136 There are manie wrinkles and plaits in his broome or brushing taile.
5. Comb. General relations:
a. attributive, as broom-besom, broom-blossom, broom-brush, broom-field, broom-flower, broom-grove, broom-handle, broom-head, broom-plant, broom-salve, broom-shaft, broom-shank, broom-stalk, broom-tree, broom-wood;
b. objective, as broom-maker, broom-seller.
1693Urquhart Rabelais iii. xvii, Three whisks of a *broom-besom. 1814Jones in Life Chalmers (1851) I. 379 It is..scrubbed off with a birch or broom besom.
c1314Guy Warw. (1840) 292 (Halliw.) In a *brom feld ther wer hidde Thre hundred Sarrazins. 1633Ames Agst. Cerem. ii. 258 One instrument..for the pastures, and another for the broome-feilds.
1595Spenser Sonn. xxvi, Sweet is the *Broome-flowre. 1846Sowerby Brit. Bot. (1864) III. 14 Henry VIII..was wont to drinke the distilled water of Broom-flowers, against surfets and diseases thereof arising.
1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 66 Thy *broome-groues; Whose shadow the dismissed Batchelor loues, Being lasse-lorne.
1826Chron. in Ann. Reg. 51/1 He entered the yard..with a *broom-handle in one hand and a rope with a noose to it in the other.
1882Howells in Longm. Mag. I. 56 Wherever the piano-forte penetrates, lovely woman lifts her fingers from..the *broom-handle, and the washboard.
1817Parl. Debates 1344 Two *broom-makers, who sold their brooms in adjoining stalls.
c1500Cocke Lorell's B. (1843) 10 Potters, *brome sellers, pedelers.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §44 *Brome salue..to salue poore mennes shepe, that thynke terre to costely.
1764T. Bridges Homer Travest. I. 32 Let Hector..with his trusty *broomshaft douse ye.
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, ‘Her and the gudeman will be whirrying through the blue lift on a *broomshank’.
1646Buck Rich. III, i. 7 Geoffry Plantagenet used to weare a *Broome-stalke in his Bonnet.
1846Sowerby Brit. Bot. (1864) III. 13 *Broom⁓tops were often used to communicate a bitter flavour to beer.
a1450Wyclif Jer. xlviii. 6 (MS. E) Ȝee shul be as iencian trees [later hand *broom trees] in desert.
1810Campbell Poems I. 8 A *broomwood blossom'd vale.
6. Special comb.: broom-boy, ? a street-sweeper or broom-seller; broom-bush, Parthenium Hysterophorus; † broom-cat, an old name for the hare; broom-cod, the seed-vessel of the broom; broom-croft, a croft or field in which broom grows; broom-cypress, Kochia scoparia, (see belvedere 2); broom-dasher (dial.), a dealer in fagots, brooms, etc. (cf. haberdasher); broom-dog (Sc.), an instrument for eradicating broom (Jam.); broom goose-foot = broom-cypress; broom-grass, Andropogon scoparius; broom-heath, the cross-leaved heath, Erica tetralix; broom-hook, ? = broom-dog; broom horse [horse n. 6 e] (see quot. 1921); broom-land, land overgrown with broom; broom-sedge, a species of coarse grass, ? Spartina; broom-squire (see quots.); broom-straw U.S., the straw of broom corn; also the plant itself; broom-tail (of a horse), a long bushy tail (cf. 4); broom toad-flax = Broom cypress; broom-weed, a herbaceous plant (Corchorus siliquosus) of the West Indies and tropical America, from the leaves of which a drink is prepared; † broom-wort, a name applied by Gerard to species of Thlaspi; by others to some plant not identified (? broomrape).
1593Nashe Four Lett. Confut. 127 *Broome boyes, and cornecutters.
c1300Names of Hare in Rel. Ant. I. 133 The *bromkat, The purblinde, the fursecat.
1509Will of Lewkenor (Somerset Ho.) A coler of gold sett with diuerse perlys & *brome codde. 1868Stanley Westm. Ab. iii. 148 The broomscods of the Plantagenets.
1871Kingsley At Last x, Grand masses of colour..are supplied by a heather moor, a furze or *broom-croft.
1864Times 12 Dec., Heaths and plantations..occupied by brickmakers and ‘*broom-dashers’.
1660in Select. fr. Harl. Misc. (1793) 380 The king exchanged his woodbill for Francis Yates's *broom-hook.
1921K. S. Woods Rural Industries round Oxford ii. i. 95 The broom-maker sits on a ‘*broom horse’ which has a grip to hold one end of the band while binding the twigs.
1707Mortimer Husb. (J.), I have known sheep cured of the rot by being put into *broomlands.
1856Olmsted Slave States 9 Land..which bore only *broom⁓sedge—a thin, worthless grass.
1825D. Garrow Hist. Lymington 31 Besoms..composed of heath, which grows in abundance all over the New Forest..The manufacturers of this little useful domestic article are termed *Broom Squires. 1857Kingsley Two Y. Ago II. xiv. 129 ‘Broom-squires?’ ‘So we call in Berkshire squatters on the moor who live by tying heath into brooms.’
1785Washington Diaries (1925) II. 365 Tussics of *broom Straw. 1846J. J. Hooper Simon Sugg's Adv. (1851) iii. 38 He wont be able to step over the butt cut of a broom straw.
1684Lond. Gaz. No. 1960/4 Stolen or strayed..a Chesnut Sorrel Gelding..with a *broom Tail. 1704Ibid. No. 3981/4 A..Mare..with a large Brome Tail.
1786P. Browne Jamaica 147 *Broom-weed..is generally used in besoms by the negroes.
1614Markham Cheap Husb. i. (1668) Table Hard Wds., *Broomwort is an Herb with broun coloured leaves, and beareth a blew flower, and most commonly grows in Woods.
▪ II. broom, v.|bruːm|
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To sweep with a broom.
1838J. Grant Sk. Lond. 43 If he escaped being scrubbed or ‘broomed’ to death. 1855Thackeray Newcomes lviii. (D.), Work-people brooming away the fallen leaves. 1883M. E. Braddon Gold. Calf x. 119 A feeble old woman was feebly brooming the floor.
2. To bream a ship. (? Only in Dicts.)
1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 13 Broming or Breaming. Breaming her, is but washing or burning of all the filth with reeds or broome. 1678Phillips, Brooming or Broming a ship: see Breaming. 1707Glossogr. Nova, The brooming of a ship meant in old time the burning of the filth from its side. 1708–21in Kersey, Brooming or Breaming of a Ship. 1721–1800in Bailey. |