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Glite Dictionary
🤵 A man at wedding 🧼 To clean or brush 🎓 To prepare someone ⚠️ To gain trust for abuse 🐴 Horse caretaker
to groom

to groom

34 4.1
To prepare someone for a future job or role
  • verb
  • /ɡrum/
translation icon : preparar
  • With the loss of most of the senior NCOs, she was being groomed for the Third Platoon sergeant's position.
  • groom a successor
  • groom students

So they were grooming us to take over the family at some point.

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Examples

  • We've been grooming Roly to take over the paper when I step aside.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • What they've done here is they use the platform as a way to groom the future scientists.

  • Great teachers groom their students to become leaders, to become excellent.

  • Impress John, and he'll groom you to be his number two.

    Sorority Boys (2002)

  • Independent schools have more opportunity than most to groom their successors.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Yeah, these are people being groomed for top slots in the corporation.

    The Numbers Station (2013)

  • My father, a liberal Presbyterian minister, saw promise in me and groomed me for a religious career.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Rumor has it they're grooming him to be the next VP.

    Syrup (2013)

  • Well, when you groom someone the way we groomed Andy, nurturing him, lavishing all kinds of special treatment on him, you make quite an investment.

    Philadelphia (1993)

  • Great teachers groom their students to become leaders and excel in their future careers.

Synonyms

to prepare
vsto groom
∞ 1.3

Teach someone the skills they need for a job or role

focuses on a particular future function rather than general skill building
to train
vsto groom
∞ 1.0

To teach someone skills by practice and help

targets a specific future function rather than general skill development

Antonyms

neglect
100 3.5

Not caring for someone or something that needs care

Compounds

bride and groom
27 1.0

A couple who are getting married at a wedding

groom-to-be
2 3.0

A man who will soon get married

How Prepared

to train
∞ 1.0
to groom
34 4.1
to brief
181 3.7

Surface Forms

groom infinitive
groomed past
groomed past participle
grooming present participle
grooms third person singular

Etymology

The verb groom meaning to prepare or train someone comes from the idea of getting someone ready, just like a stable groom gets a horse ready. So to groom someone for a job is to train and prepare them for that role.