broomcorn
9.9
A tall grain plant with stiff seed heads that people use to make brooms and brushes
- noun
- /ˈbrumˌkɔrn/
- Specialized
:
escoba de maíz
- Though broomcorn is available in all of the traditional fall colors of russet, brown, and orange/brown, this pale green version is exquisite.
- grow broomcorn
Examples
-
And each come-up-steaming dawn, we swept locust carcasses with broomcorn and dumped them into the trash.
Fiction book (1994) -
The farmer cultivates broomcorn to create traditional handmade brooms.
-
In the garden, the tall green plants of broomcorn sway gently in the breeze.
-
My grandmother taught me how to select the best broomcorn for making sturdy brushes.
Synonyms
9.2
A tall grass with long stiff flower clusters used to make brooms and brushes
is a specific variety of that grass grown for brushlike seed heads
7.7
A tall grass used to make brooms
is more specific, grown for stiff brushlike seed heads rather than various tall grasses
Compounds
Surface Forms
broomcorn singular
broomcorns plural
Morphology
Etymology
Broomcorn is a simple compound of broom and corn, where broom means the brush and corn means 'grain' or 'seed'. It names a tall plant whose stiff, grain-like heads were used to make brooms, so the name explains what the plant was used for.
