English Dictionary

besom

/ˈbiː.zəm/

noun

A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft. / (Scotland, Northern England, derogatory) A troublesome woman. / Any cleansing or purifying agent.

She swept the floor with a besom.

意味（1）

A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft.

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.

意味（2）

(Scotland, Northern England, derogatory) A troublesome woman.

Eh, but she was a besom, if a' tales be true !

意味（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.