boom

present singular third person booms · participle present booming · participle past boomed · past boomed

1. To make a loud, hollow, resonant sound.

   Beneath the cliff, the sea was booming on the rocks.

   4 more examples

   Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning flashes lit up the horizon.

   The cannon boomed, recoiled, and spewed a heavy smoke cloud.

   I can hear the organ slowly booming from the chapel.

   Did you ever hear a bittern booming?

   1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

2. figurativelytransitiveTo exclaim with force, to shout, to thunder.

   1 more example

   I was about to reach for the marmalade, when I heard the telephone tootling out in the hall and rose to attend to it. “Bertram Wooster's residence,” I said, having connected with the instrument. “Wooster in person at this end. Oh hullo,” I added, for the voice that boomed over the wire was that of Mrs Thomas Portarlington Travers of Brinkley Court, Market Snodsbury, near Droitwich – or, putting it another way, my good and deserving Aunt Dahlia. [...] “I'd give a tenner to have Aubrey Upjohn here at this moment.” “You can get him for nothing. He's in Uncle Tom's study.” Her face lit up. “He is?” [Aunt Dahlia] threw her head back and inflated the lungs. “UPJOHN!” she boomed, rather like someone calling the cattle home across the sands of Dee, and I issued a kindly word of warning. “Watch that blood pressure, old ancestor.”

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “I AND XVII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

3. intransitiveTo flourish, grow, or progress.

   Business was booming.

   3 more examples

   The population boomed in recent years.

   “If you look at South Florida right now, this place is booming,” Mr. DeSantis said recently. “Los Angeles isn’t booming. New York City isn’t booming.”

   2021 March 22, Neil Vigdor, Michael Majchrowicz, Azi Paybarah, quoting Ron DeSantis, “Miami Beach, Overwhelmed by Spring Break, Extends Emergency Curfew”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Over this period, as plants boomed, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dropped by 90 per cent, triggering a period of global cooling.

   2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 145

   Synonyms: flourish, prosper

4. transitiveTo make (something) boom.

   Men in grey robes slowly boom the drums of death.

5. To make a deep, resonant, territorial vocalisation.

   Miles on miles of quagmire, varied only by bright green strips of comparatively solid ground, and by deep and sullen pools fringed with tall rushes, in which the bitterns boomed and the frogs croaked incessantly[.]

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

6. intransitiveaeronauticsTo cause a sonic boom.
7. slangtransitiveaeronauticsTo subject (someone or something) to a sonic boom.
8. USobsoleteslangTo publicly praise, to rally behind.

   If you pull this off every paper in England and America will be booming you.

   1922, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Problem of Thor Bridge

   2 more examples

   This unexpected stand on the budget met with some displeasure from his Democratic colleagues and the Administration , particularly in light of the fact that Truman had not forgotten that Douglas boomed Eisenhower as the Democrat nominee for President in 1948.

   1964, Jerry Maynard Anderson, Paul H. Douglas: Insurgent Senate Spokesman for Humane Causes, 1949-1963

   Field's ostensible reason for going to Texas was to attend the second annual Texas Roundup in Austin. He boomed Roosevelt there. “Governor Roosevelt has all the strength possessed by Al Smith and none of Smith's weaknesses,” he told reporters.

   2019 October 22, Norman D. Brown, Biscuits, the Dole, and Nodding Donkeys: Texas Politics, 1929–1932, University of Texas Press, →ISBN

9. To rush forwards with such violent intensity that it generates a sustained, overwhelming, roaring noise; especially from the perspective of a bystander who has been suddenly subjected to it.

   The ship was booming under the press of sail.

   2 more examples

   The train boomed through the station without stopping.

   She comes booming down before it.

   1841, Benjamin Totten, Naval Text-book and Dictionary […]

10. slangboard gamesTo rapidly adjust the evaluation of a position away from zero, indicating a likely win or loss.

    In its White game Stockfish had various moments of booming during these long thinks, but these long thinks always ended disappointingly in a slightly lower evaluation than it started with.

    2022 April 22, Matthew Sadler, “TCEC Season 22 SuperFinal: Komodo Dragon vs Stockfish”, in TCEC, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2022

    1 more example

    It can get fast enough that it's hard to see what flashed on your screen though, so it would be nice if chess engines had a feature of persistently showing you what move they planned to play before they boomed, even if it took less than a second for them to figure it out.

    2021 January 23, Bram Cohen, “You're doing computer chess game commentary wrong”, in Medium, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2022

    Antonyms: moob

11. datedtransitiveTo cause to advance rapidly in price.

    to boom railroad or mining shares

plural booms

1. A low-pitched, resonant sound, such as of an explosion.

   the boom of the surf

2. A rapid expansion or increase.

   You should prepare for the coming boom in the tech industry.

   1 more example

   Some of the minor Welsh 2 ft. gauge railways, we hear from Mr. N. F. G. Dalston, are enjoying a miniature boom owing to the demand for slate for the repair of damaged roofs.

   1941 March, “Notes and News: The Demand for Slate”, in Railway Magazine, page 141

3. businessA period of prosperity, growth, progress, or high market activity.

   Antonyms: depression, recession

4. abbreviationellipsisaeronauticsEllipsis of sonic boom.
5. One of the calls of certain monkeys or birds.

   Interestingly, the blue monkey's boom and pyow calls are both long-distance signals (Brown, 1989), yet the two calls differ in respect to their susceptibility to habitat-induced degradation.

   1990, Mark A. Berkley, William C. Stebbins, Comparative Perception

6. slangboard gamesAn instance of booming.

   The evaluation boom and moob continued as Stockfish headed for a queen-rook-knight vs queen-rook-knight position that looked pretty nasty to me!

   2022 April 22, Matthew Sadler, “TCEC Season 22 SuperFinal: Komodo Dragon vs Stockfish”, in TCEC, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2022

   1 more example

   Some chess commentators know to excitedly point out when booms happen but they almost universally are missing out on the next step of explaining what the boom meant.

   2021 January 23, Bram Cohen, “You're doing computer chess game commentary wrong”, in Medium, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2022

   Antonyms: moob

1. Used to suggest the sound of an explosion.

   crash boom bang

   1 more example

   In regards to what happened to Mutsu, well, it went BOOM'. To be more prosaic about it, there were a number of theories put forward as to why Mutsus magazine for its aft superfiring turret exploded, some of them more plausible than others.

   2020 January 12, Drachinifel, 47:06 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 076, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2022

2. Used to suggest something happening suddenly or unexpectedly; voilà.

   Add one cup of hot water, wait a minute, and boom — your cup of ramen is ready.

   2 more examples

   So we went around the corner, looked in the garbage, and, boom, there's about 16 of the tapes he didn't like!

   1993, Vibe, volume 1, number 2

   Hostile race relations and chronic unemployment are ignored in the suburbs of Paris, London and Sydney, and boom! there are riots.

   2013, Peter Westoby, Gerard Dowling, Theory and Practice of Dialogical Community Development

3. The sound of a bass drum beating.
4. The sound of a cannon firing.

plural booms

1. nauticalA spar extending the foot of a sail; a spar rigged outboard from a ship's side to which boats are secured in harbour.

   Tighten the outhaul and place the appropriate line in the cam cleat located on the boom about two feet back from the mast.

   (Can we date this quote?), “Pico Rigging Instructions”, in California State University, Sacramento, page 1

2. artsA specially-designed, movable pole, used to suspend a microphone or camera high above the ground during filming or recording.
3. abbreviationbroadlyellipsisartsEllipsis of boom microphone (a microphone supported on such a pole).
4. space flightA deployable structure on spacecraft used for mounting solar panels, radiators, antennae, instruments, etc.
5. A horizontal member of a crane or derrick, used for lifting.
6. businessThe longest element of a Yagi-Uda antenna, on which the other, smaller antennae are transversally mounted.
7. A boom barrier; a lowerable bar used to block vehicle access.
8. A floating barrier used to obstruct navigation on water, for military or other purposes; or used for the containment of an oil spill or to control the flow of logs from logging operations.

   I went out on the timber boom and made a few casts, but with little success.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152

   Synonyms: chain, chain boom

9. gymnasticsA gymnastics apparatus, similar to a balance beam, which must be traversed as part of an obstacle course, typically as a training exercise in school or as part of basic training for new military recruits.

   1 more example

   The wooden upright was now standing in the middle of the floor, and the two booms were fitted into its grooved side and hoisted as high as hands could reach. [...] Two by two, one at each end, the students proceeded along the boom, hanging by their hands, monkey-wise. [...] Two by two the students somersaulted upwards on to the high boom, turned to a sitting position sideways, and then slowly stood up on the narrow ledge.

   1948, Josephine Tey, Miss Pym Disposes

10. A wishbone-shaped piece of windsurfing equipment.
11. The section of the arm on a backhoe closest to the tractor.

present singular third person booms · participle present booming · participle past boomed · past boomed

1. To extend, or push, with a boom or pole.

   to boom out a sail

   1 more example

   to boom off a boat

2. usuallyTo raise or lower with a crane boom.

1. A Belgian town and municipality in the southwest of the Flemish province of Antwerp.