broom

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An implement used for sweeping, usually consisting of a bunch of twigs, straw, or bristles bound together and attached to a stick or handle.
2. n. Any of various Mediterranean shrubs of the genus Cytisus in the pea family, especially C. scoparius, having mostly compound leaves with three leaflets and showy, usually bright yellow flowers.
3. n. Any of several similar or related shrubs, especially in the genera Genista and Spartium.
4. v. To sweep with or as if with a broom.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The popular name of several plants, mostly leguminous shrubs, characterized by long, slender branches and numerous yellow flowers. The common or Irish broom is the Cytisus (Genista) scoparius, abundant throughout Europe, and famous as the planta genista (French plante genêt) which was the badge of the Plan-tagenets. It is a valuable remedy in dropsy, being one of the most efficient of hydragogues, and its seeds are used as a substitute for coffee. Spanish broom (Spartium junceum) is a closely allied species, as is also the dyer's broom (Genista tinctoria), which was formerly much used as a yellow dye and as the basis of the once celebrated Kendal green. See cuts under Cytisus and Genista.
2. n. A besom, or brush with a long handle, for sweeping floors, etc.: so called from being originally made of the broom-plant. Brooms are now made in Europe of this and various other materials; and in the United States their manufacture from broom-corn is an important business. A broom at the masthead of a vessel indicates that she is for sale, a sign derived probably from the old habit of displaying boughs at shops and taverns.
3. To sweep, or clear away, as with a broom.
4. Same as bream.

Wiktionary

1. v. nautical Alternative form of bream (to clean a ship's bottom)
2. n. A domestic utensil with fibers bound together at the end of a long handle, used for sweeping.
3. n. curling An implement with which players sweep the ice to make a stone travel further and curl less; a broom or sweeper.
4. n. botany Any of several yellow-flowered shrubs of the family Leguminosae, in the genera Cytisus and Genista, with long, thin branches and small or few leaves.
5. v. To sweep.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. 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.
2. n. 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.
3. v. (Naut.) See bream.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. finish with a broom
2. v. sweep with a broom or as if with a broom
3. n. any of various shrubs of the genera Cytisus or Genista or Spartium having long slender branches and racemes of yellow flowers
4. n. common Old World heath represented by many varieties; low evergreen grown widely in the northern hemisphere
5. n. a cleaning implement for sweeping; bundle of straws or twigs attached to a long handle