boom

Verb (1)

boom (third-person singular simple present booms, present participle booming, simple past and past participle boomed)

1. To make a loud, hollow, resonant sound.
   • Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning flashes lit up the horizon.
   • The cannon boomed, recoiled, and spewed a heavy smoke cloud.
2. (figuratively, transitive) To exclaim with force, to shout, to thunder.
   • 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...1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “I AND XVII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
3. (intransitive) To flourish, grow, or progress.
   • The population boomed in recent years.
   • Business was booming.

   Synonyms:

   flourish, prosper

4. (transitive) To 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. (intransitive) To cause a sonic boom.
7. (slang, transitive) To subject (someone or something) to a sonic boom.
8. (US, obsolete, slang) To 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
   • 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
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 train boomed through the station without stopping.
   • The ship was booming under the press of sail.
10. (slang) To rapidly adjust the evaluation of a position away from zero, indicating a likely win or loss.
    • 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
    • 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

    Antonyms:

    moob

11. (dated, transitive) To cause to advance rapidly in price.
    • to boom railroad or mining shares

Noun (1)

boom (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.
   • 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. A period of prosperity, growth, progress, or high market activity.

   Antonyms:

   depression, recession

4. 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
5. (slang) An instance of booming.
   • 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
   • 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

   Antonyms:

   moob

Interjection

1. Used to suggest the sound of an explosion.
   • crash boom bang
   • 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 Mutsu's 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.
   • 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
3. The sound of a bass drum beating.
4. The sound of a cannon firing.

Noun (2)

boom (plural booms)

1. A 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. A specially-designed, movable pole, used to suspend a microphone or camera high above the ground during filming or recording.
3. A horizontal member of a crane or derrick, used for lifting.
4. The longest element of a Yagi-Uda antenna, on which the other, smaller antennae are transversally mounted.
5. A boom barrier; a lowerable bar used to block vehicle access.
6. 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

7. A 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.
   • 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...1948, Josephine Tey, Miss Pym Disposes
8. A wishbone-shaped piece of windsurfing equipment.
9. The section of the arm on a backhoe closest to the tractor.

Verb (2)

boom (third-person singular simple present booms, present participle booming, simple past and past participle boomed)

1. To extend, or push, with a boom or pole.
   • to boom out a sail
   • to boom off a boat
2. (usually) To raise or lower with a crane boom.

Proper noun capitalized: Boom

IPA/boʊm/

Boom

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