boom

verb

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.”

   “Beneath the cliff, the sea was booming on the rocks.”

   “I can hear the organ slowly booming from the chapel.”

   “Did you ever hear a bittern booming?”

2. (figuratively, transitive)To exclaim with force, to shout, to thunder.
3. (intransitive)To flourish, grow, or progress.

   “The population boomed in recent years.”

   “Business was booming.”

   ““If you look at South Florida right now, this place is booming,” Mr. DeSantis said recently. “Los Angeles isn’t booming. New York City isn’t booming.””

   “Over this period, as plants boomed, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dropped by 90 per cent, triggering a period of global cooling.”

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[.]”

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.”

   “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.”

   “Field's ostensible reason for going to Texas was to attend the second annual Texas Roundup in Austin. He boomed Roosevelt there. “Governor Roosevelt has all the strength possessed by Al Smith and none of Smith's weaknesses,” he told reporters.”

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.”

   “She comes booming down before it.”

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.”

    “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.”

11. (dated, transitive)To cause to advance rapidly in price.

    “to boom railroad or mining shares”

12. To extend, or push, with a boom or pole.

    “to boom out a sail”

    “to boom off a boat”

13. (usually)To raise or lower with a crane boom.

noun

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.”

3. A period of prosperity, growth, progress, or high market activity.
4. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of sonic boom.
5. 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.”

6. (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.”

   “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!”

7. 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.”

8. A specially-designed, movable pole, used to suspend a microphone or camera high above the ground during filming or recording.
9. (abbreviation, alt-of, broadly, ellipsis)Ellipsis of boom microphone (a microphone supported on such a pole).
10. A horizontal member of a crane or derrick, used for lifting.
11. The longest element of a Yagi-Uda antenna, on which the other, smaller antennae are transversally mounted.
12. A floating barrier used to obstruct navigation, 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.”

13. 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 somersaulted upwards on to the high boom, turned to a sitting position sideways, and then slowly stood up on the narrow ledge.”

14. A wishbone-shaped piece of windsurfing equipment.
15. The section of the arm on a backhoe closest to the tractor.

intj

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.”

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!”

   “Hostile race relations and chronic unemployment are ignored in the suburbs of Paris, London and Sydney, and boom! there are riots.”

3. The sound of a bass drum beating.
4. The sound of a cannon firing.

name

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