| Definitions | | besom |
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noun
- A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft.
verb
- (context, archaic, poetic) To sweep.
- 1954 "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..." Dylan Thomas: Under Milk Wood p.13
Etymology: Old English besma, from West Germanic - besmon. Cognates include German besen and Dutch bezem.
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