Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
a broom made of twigs tied together on a long handle;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Besom \Be"som\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Besomed.]
To sweep, as with a besom. [Archaic or Poetic] --Cowper.
[1913 Webster]
Rolls back all Greece, and besoms wide the plain.
--Barlow.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Besom \Be"som\, n. [OE. besme, besum, AS. besma; akin to D.
bezem, OHG pesamo, G. besen; of uncertain origin.]
A brush of twigs for sweeping; a broom; anything which sweeps
away or destroys. [Archaic or Fig.]
[1913 Webster]
I will sweep it with the besom of destruction. --Isa.
xiv. 23.
[1913 Webster]
The housemaid with her besom. --W. Irving.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
besom
n 1: a broom made of twigs tied together on a long handle
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:
Besom
the rendering of a Hebrew word meaning sweeper, occurs only in
Isa. 14:23, of the sweeping away, the utter ruin, of Babylon.