besom /ˈbiː.zəm/noun 3verb 1forms 3 noun3 •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 •(Scotland, offensive) A troublesome woman."Eh, but she was a besom, if a' tales be true !" — 1903 •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 verb1 •(literary, no longer used) To sweep. formsbesomed · besoming · besoms
