boom

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic, perhaps borrowed; compare German bummen, Dutch bommen (“to hum, buzz”).

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? 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
2. (transitive, figurative, of speech) To exclaim with force, to shout, to thunder.
3. Of a Eurasian bittern, to make its deep, resonant territorial vocalisation.
4. (transitive) To make something boom.
   Men in grey robes slowly boom the drums of death.
5. (aviation) To subject to a sonic boom.
6. (slang, US, obsolete) To publicly praise.
   If you pull this off every paper in England and America will be booming you. 1922, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Problem of Thor Bridge
7. To rush with violence and noise, as a ship under a press of sail, before a free wind.
   She comes booming down before it. 1841, Benjamin Totten, Naval Text-book and Dictionary[…]
8. (chess engines) 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. 2021-01-23, Bram Cohen, “You're doing computer chess game commentary wrong”, in Medium, archived from the original on 2022-12-06
   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. 2022-04-22, Matthew Sadler, “TCEC Season 22 SuperFinal: Komodo Dragon vs Stockfish”, in TCEC, archived from the original on 2022-12-13

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. 1941 March, “Notes and News: The Demand for Slate”, in Railway Magazine, page 141
3. (aviation) Ellipsis of sonic boom.
4. 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. 1990, Mark A. Berkley, William C. Stebbins, Comparative Perception
5. (chess engines) 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. 2021-01-23, Bram Cohen, “You're doing computer chess game commentary wrong”, in Medium, archived from the original on 2022-12-06
   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! 2022-04-22, Matthew Sadler, “TCEC Season 22 SuperFinal: Komodo Dragon vs Stockfish”, in TCEC, archived from the original on 2022-12-13

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. 12 January 2020, Drachinifel, 47:06 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 076, archived from the original on 2022-09-26
2. Used to suggest something happening suddenly and unexpectedly.
   So we went around the corner, looked in the garbage, and, boom, there's about 16 of the tapes he didn't like! 1993, Vibe, volume 1, number 2
   Hostile race relations and chronic unemployment are ignored in the suburbs of Paris, London and Sydney, and boom! there are riots. 2013, Peter Westoby, Gerard Dowling, Theory and Practice of Dialogical Community Development
3. The sound of a bass drum beating.
4. The sound of a cannon firing.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Dutch boom (“tree; pole”). Doublet of beam.

noun

1. (sailing) A spar extending the foot of a sail; a spar rigged outboard from a ship's side to which boats are secured in harbour.
2. A movable pole used to support a microphone or camera.
3. (by extension) A microphone supported on such a pole.
4. A horizontal member of a crane or derrick, used for lifting.
5. (electronics) The longest element of a Yagi antenna, on which the other, smaller ones are transversally mounted.
6. 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. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152
7. A wishbone-shaped piece of windsurfing equipment.
8. The section of the arm on a backhoe closest to the tractor.
9. A gymnastics apparatus similar to a balance beam.
   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. 1948, Josephine Tey, Miss Pym Disposes

verb

1. To extend, or push, with a boom or pole.
   to boom out a sail
   to boom off a boat
2. (usually with "up" or "down") To raise or lower with a crane boom.

Etymology 3

Perhaps a figurative development of Etymology 1, above.

noun

1. (economics, business) A period of prosperity, growth, progress, or high market activity.

verb

1. (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.” 2021-03-22, Neil Vigdor, Michael Majchrowicz, Azi Paybarah, quoting Ron DeSantis, “Miami Beach, Overwhelmed by Spring Break, Extends Emergency Curfew”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   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. 2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 145
2. (transitive, dated) To cause to advance rapidly in price.
   to boom railroad or mining shares