Dictionary

besom en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbiː.zəm/
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈbɛ.zəm/

Etymology

From Middle English besme, beseme, from Old English besma, besema (“besom, broom, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic *besmō (“broom”).

Meanings

1. A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft.
   • At Ickwell Green, in Bedfordshire, there is a permanent maypole. There, the May Queen is accompanied by moggies (raggedly dressed women) carrying besoms - birch-twig brooms. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 263:
   • As a kid I went to the Russian Bath with my own father. … Down in the cellar men moaned on the steam-softened planks while they were massaged abrasively with oak-leaf besoms lathered in pickle buckets. 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 56:
2. (Northern-England, Scotland, derogatory) A troublesome woman.
   • Janet's eyes began to look dim, and I had to frown at her very hard; then I had to turn my frown on Jean ... and Janet, the besom, took advantage of my divided attention. 1917, A.S. Neill., A Dominie Dismissed, page 10:
   • "She's a besom but no' bad at times, like now," Agnes said as she bit into a dough-ring. 2013, Nora Kay, Best Friends:
   • "Eh, but she was a besom, if a' tales be true !" 1903, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Dark O' the Moon: A Novel, page 130:
   • Uncle Angus went on about the behavior of the car. "She's a besom, a proper besom, her and her gears. She'll be the death of me yet one of these days." 1963, Margaret McLean MacPherson, The Shinty Boys, page 187:
3. Any cleansing or purifying agent.
   • "The march of an army through a conquered country supposing it to be a highly civilized one, is a besom of destruction, whose havoc, moral and material, it would take at least a century to recover." 1851, “A Few Words about War and the Peace Congress.”, in Littell’s Living Age, volume 28, page 364:

Forms

Coordinates

bitch · witch

Deriveds

besom pocket · besomlike · besomer · witch's besom · besom-head

Hypernyms

broom

Translations (43)

pl czarownica (troublesome woman) · nn sopelime (broom) · bn ঝাঁটা (broom) · fi noita-akka (troublesome woman) · pl jędza (troublesome woman) · bg препарат (cleansing agent) · pl zołza (troublesome woman) · fa جاروب (broom) · cmn 潑婦 /泼妇 (troublesome woman) · uk мiтла (broom) · he מטאטא m mataté (broom) · ar مِقَشَّة (broom) · pl miotła (broom) · it scopa di saggina (broom) · acw مَقَشَّة (broom) · nb rivjern (troublesome woman) · nl bezem (broom) · bn বাড়ন (broom) · ota سوپوركه (broom) · pt vassoura (broom) · nb sopelime (broom) · de Reisigbesen (broom) · cmn 柳條掃帚 /柳条扫帚 (broom) · ota مكنسه (broom) · cmn 淨化劑 /净化剂 (cleansing agent) · pl heksa (troublesome woman) · xdq мугу́л (broom) · lv slota (broom) · de Besen (troublesome woman) · pl wiedźma (troublesome woman) · fi varsiluuta (broom) · hy ավել (broom) · bg метла (broom) · ota جاروب (broom) · bn খেংরা (broom) · fi puhdistava (cleansing agent) · pl baba jaga (troublesome woman) · de Besen (broom) · fi varpuluuta (broom) · ru метла (broom) · hy ցախավել (broom) · gd sguab (broom) · li bessem (broom)

besom en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈbiː.zəm/
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈbɛ.zəm/

Etymology

From Middle English besme, beseme, from Old English besma, besema (“besom, broom, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic *besmō (“broom”).

Meanings

1. (archaic, poetic) To sweep.
   • Now, in her iceberg-white, holily laundered crinoline nightgown, under virtuous polar sheets, in her spruced and scoured dust-defying bedroom in trig and trim Bay View, a house for paying guests at the top of the town, Mrs Ogmore-Prichard widow, twice, of Mr Ogmore, linolium, retired, and Mr Prichard, failed bookmaker, who maddened by besoming, swabbing and scrubbing, the voice of the vacuum-cleaner and the fume of polish, ironically swallowed disinfectant... 1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood […] , New York: New Directions, page 13:

Forms