Dictionary

broomie en · NOUN

Etymology

From broom + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Meanings

1. (informal) A person who wields a broom.
   • Two players are named broomies, and each is positioned at either end of the court. Each has two brooms. 2005, Bernie DeKoven, Junkyard Sports, page 37:
2. (Australia, informal) A person who sweeps the floor and possibly does other menial tasks in a shearing shed.
   • In some big single-board sheds, where pickers-up and broomies have to dodge shearers who are continually crossing the board, plenty of space is necessary, and the board should not be less than 10 feet wide. 1913, New South Wales Dept of Agriculture, The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, volume 23, page 872:
   • The ′broomie′, or board boy, should keep the wool pushed up to the lamb being shorn. 1990, John Bernard D′Arcy, Sheep Management and Wool Technology, page 103:
3. (US, informal) A broomtail (unbroken range mare).
   • 1972 August, Adrienne Richard, Sundance and the Princess, Boys' Life, page 22, A broomtail, we called it, and usually broomies had their tails “pulled,” trimmed up, when they were broken to saddle, but I didn't want Sundance′s tail cut.
   • One day after corralling a bunch of broomies in a pole corral, I roped a big blue-roan mare that wore a brand. 1989, Stella Hughes, Hashknife Cowboy: Recollections of Mack Hughes, page 165:
   • In the lead of the broomies ran a beautiful cream buckskin, with black mane flying proudly! 1927, David M. Newell, Cougars & Cowboys, page 134:

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