To boom is to rush along; also, to give an impetus, to urge onward.
1850. Shall the army which finds itself on the wrong side of a booming river, rush headlong in?—Mr. Underwood of Kentucky, U.S. Senate, April 4: Cong. Globe, p. 531, App.
1879. [They are] all “booming” for U. S. Grant.—Indianapolis Journal, April 23. (N.E.D.)
1879. Every one says business is booming.—Lumberman’s Gazette, Oct. 15. (N.E.D.)
1879. There has not been the boom upon lumber experienced in many other articles of merchandise.—Id., Dec. 19. (N.E.D.)
1879. Resisting the trickery and usurpation in this State of the leading boomster.—The Nation, xxix. 236/2, Oct. 9 (N.Y.). (N.E.D.)
1885. The Oklahoma boomers.—Boston Journal, Aug. 19. (N.E.D.)
1888. The city of Paris is said to be diminishing in population. They don’t know how to boom a town over there.—Daily Inter-Ocean, n.d. (Farmer).
1890. He was an old-time boomer, and had lately come to California, because he fancied he heard the rumble of a coming boom.—Van Dyke, ‘Millionaires of a Day,’ p. 61.
