cloom

English

Etymology

A variant of clam (“to clog”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kluːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːm

Verb

cloom (third-person singular simple present clooms, present participle clooming, simple past and past participle cloomed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To close with glutinous matter.
   • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:

     If none of these ways will cause them to swarm, but that they lie forth ſtill, then rear the Hive enough to let them in, and cloom up the Skirts all but the Door

   • 1965, Murray Hoyt, The World of Bees:

     There also were wicker skeps or hives, and these were cloomed. This meant that they were banked with a mixture of dirt and cow manure to protect them from the weather and the cold

References

“cloom”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Colom., Moloc