What does brooming mean?
Brooming is the gerund form of the verb 'to broom,' meaning to sweep a floor, path, or other surface using a broom. Though most English speakers today reach for the word 'sweeping' instead, 'brooming' remains in active use in two settings: informal household speech, where it carries a slightly old-fashioned, domestic flavor, and the construction industry, where it has a precise technical meaning. In that trade, brooming refers to dragging a stiff-bristled broom across freshly poured concrete before it sets, producing fine ridges that give the hardened surface traction and slip resistance — a result known as a 'broom finish.' The word derives from 'broom,' which originally named the hardy yellow-flowered shrub whose twigs were bound together to make early sweeping implements. As a verb, brooming conveys plain, honest labor; it evokes tidy doorsteps, clean courtyards, and work done by hand rather than machine, giving it a modest but enduring place in both everyday and professional vocabulary.
The action or process of sweeping with a broom.
"A quick brooming each evening kept the workshop floor free of sawdust."
Used chiefly as a mass noun describing the activity.
Present participle of 'to broom': to sweep with a broom; in construction, to texture wet concrete by dragging a broom across it.
"They were still brooming the patio slab when the rain started."
The construction sense is standard in the building trades.
Before vacuum cleaners took over, brooming was the daily soundtrack of every household — and it still lives on in construction, where 'broom finish' concrete gets its grip from an ordinary push broom dragged over wet cement.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of brooming
The verb 'to broom' comes from the noun 'broom,' which originally denoted the shrub Cytisus scoparius (also called genista). Bundles of its twigs were tied to handles to make sweeping brushes, and by extension the implement itself came to be called a broom. The noun is recorded in English from the Old English period in its plant sense, while the sweeping-tool sense developed later in the Middle Ages. The derived verb and its gerund 'brooming' are relatively recent formations, and the construction sense ('broom finish') arose in modern building practice. Related forms include 'besom,' an older word for a bundle-of-twigs broom.
Related word forms
How brooming is actually used
Informal and somewhat old-fashioned in everyday speech, where 'sweeping' is far more common; 'brooming' survives mainly as the verb form of 'broom' and in the building trades, where 'broom finish' and 'broomed concrete' are standard terms.
Easily confused with brooming
'Booming' describes loud resonant sound or rapid economic growth, while 'brooming' refers to sweeping with a broom.