Naut. Also (in sense 3) 8 bomb. [a. Du. boom ‘tree, beam, pole,’ corresp. to OHG., MHG. boum, mod.G. baum, also to OE. béam, and mod. BEAM: taken from Du. in senses in which the Eng. beam was not used.]
1. ‘A long spar run out from different places in the ship, to extend or boom out the foot of a particular sail; as jib-boom, flying jib-boom, studding-sail booms.’ Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 1867.
1662. in Birch, Hist. Royal Soc. (1756), I. 91. The violence of it snapt off their boom by the board.
1692. in Capt. Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., xvi. 76. A Boom, a long Pole used to spread out the Clew of the Studding-sail, &c.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. ii. 20. She sail’d with … a Shoulder of Mutton Sail; and the Boom gib’d over the Top of the Cabin.
1742. Anson, Voy., III. v. 341. The mast, yard, boom, and outriggers, are all made of bamboo.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, II. 252. With broken booms and fragments of the wreck.
b. pl. That part of a ship’s deck where the spare spars are stowed.
1762–9. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 262. The yards secure along the booms were laid.
1803. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), V. 205. Hardy [is] rigging the main-yard on the booms.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 92. Mr. Chucks then sat down upon the fore-end of the booms by the funnel.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Booms, a space where the spare spars are stowed; the launch being generally stowed between them.
† 2. A pole set up to mark the course of the channel or deep water. ? Obs.
1705. J. Harris, Lexicon Techn., s.v. Boom … The Poles with Bushes or Baskets on the Top, which are placed to direct how to steer into a Channel are called Booms, and by some Beacons.
1755. in Johnson; and in mod. Dicts. [Not in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.]
3. A bar or barrier consisting of a strong chain or line of connected spars, pieces of timber bound together, etc., stretched across a river or the mouth of a harbor to obstruct navigation.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 215. The Sea-works and booms were traced out by Marquis Spinola.
1655. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I, 93. Before his coming the Cardinal had finisht his prodigious Boom and Barricado [at Rochelle] through which it was impossible to break.
1689. Luttrell, Brief Rel., I. 549. The Irish had laid a great chain with a boom acrosse the river.
1702. W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, x. 37. Anciently a Chain or Bomb lay across from Castle to Castle, to prevent the passing of Ships.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789).
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. xii. Large pieces of fir wood strongly bound together, formed a boom which was more than a quarter of a mile in length.
4. In the American lumber-trade: A line of floating timber stretched across a river or round an area of water to retain floating logs.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., VII. (1852), App. 592. She stole along by the river side, until she came to a boom, where she passed over.
1829. D. Conway, Norway, &c. 190. The booms that are placed across the stream nearer its mouth.
1848. Thoreau, Maine W., i. (1864), 32. Showing no traces of man but some low boom in a distant cove reserved for spring. Ibid. (1865), Cape Cod, vi. 105. The inhabitants visit the beach to see what they have caught as regularly as … a lumberer his boom.
1884. S. E. Dawson, Hand-bk. Canada, 20. Slides and Booms. It was also necessary, as Canada depends much upon the lumbering industry, to open up the streams for floating timber to market. This has been done by timber slides, booms, and dams too numerous to particularise here.
5. Comb., as boom-sheet, -stick, etc. (sense 4); boom-boat, a boat stowed on the booms (see 1 b); boom-brace pendant, ‘a rope attached to the extremity of a studding-sail boom, used to counteract the pressure of the sail upon the boom’ (Smyth); boom-cover, a cover for the spars when stowed on deck; boom-ended a., having the studding-sail booms rigged in, so that their ends do not project beyond the yard-arms; boom-iron, an iron ring fitted on the yard-arm, through which the studding-sail boom slides when rigged out or in; a similar ring by which the flying jib-boom is secured to the jib-boom, or this to the bowsprit; boom-jigger, a tackle for rigging the top-mast studding-sail booms out or in; boom-sail, a sail (foresail or mainsail) which is set to a boom instead of to a yard (opposed to square foresail or mainsail); boom-sheet, a sheet fastened to a boom; boom-spar, see BOMESPAR.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast., xxvii. 90. The studding-sail halyards were let go, and the yards *boom-ended.
1881. Daily Tel., 28 Jan., 1/1. The propeller is fast taking the place of the old *boom-foresail.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), *Boom-iron … is employed to connect two cylindrical pieces of wood together, when the one is used as a continuation of the other.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, viii. A tail block was attached to the boom-iron, at the outer extremity of each fore-yard-arm. Ibid., xx. She had a square mainsail, *boom mainsail, and jib.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Chandeliers … the crutches fixed on the stern or quarter of a *boom-sail vessel.
1836. Marryat, Pirate, viii. Ease off the *boom sheet.
1879. Lumberman’s Gaz., 18 June, 6. It shall be unlawful for any person other than the owner thereof … to take possession of … any log, spar, *boomstick, etc. … in any waters in this State [Michigan].
