broadcast

Etymology

broad + cast.

adj

1. Cast or scattered widely in all directions; cast abroad.
   The seed was broadcast, not drilled.
   And ſuch a double Sowing is of the greateſt Importance; for on the thick Growth of a Crop very much depends on the Bigneſs of it at Harveſt, becauſe, by ſuch a thick Growth, the Weeds are overcome and kept down from hurting the Oats; and, likewiſe, the Heats and Droughts kept the better out from parching up the Roots of the Oats, which, in too thin a Crop, often prove fatal to it; for, when Oats are ſown in the random or broadcaſt Way, there is no more Mold allowed their Roots than what the Harrows and Roll give them; which, at beſt, is but a ſuperficial and moſt thin Covering, and, therefore, the more liable to ſuffer by Droughts, which is different from the Way of ſowing Oats in Drills. 1744, William Ellis, “Of White Oats”, in The Modern Husbandman: Or, The Practice of Farming: As it is Now Carried On by the Most Accurate Farmers in Several Counties of England. For the Month of April. …, Dublin: Printed by and for George Faulkner, →OCLC, pages 48–49
   There must be action on and participation in broadcast methods of public education, face to face, in groups, or by use of the mails. This, however, is of secondary importance to the man-to-man job of education in care with fire in the woods. 1931 June, M. A. Mattoon, “Application of Methods to Minimize Human Risks and Physical Dangers”, in Fire Handbook: Region Seven: United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 8
2. Communicated, signalled, or transmitted through radio waves or electronic means.
   For radio-transmission it has been found that certain passages of a rhythmical nature come out more clearly if wooden-headed sticks are used. The Timpani sometimes tend to sound blurred and even to have a blurring effect on the rest of the orchestral ensemble in broadcast music, when ordinary soft sticks are used in a strongly marked rhythm. 1946, Ch[arles]-M[arie] Widor, “Percussion Instruments”, in Edward Suddard, transl., The Technique of the Modern Orchestra: A Manual of Practical Instrumentation, rev. and new edition, London: Joseph Wiliams Limited, 29, Enford Street, Marylebone, W.1, →OCLC; reprinted Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2005, page 208
3. Relating to transmissions of messages or signals through radio waves or electronic means.
   The new limitations would still prohibit foreigners from wholly or directly owning broadcast licensees, allowing only indirect ownership through a stake in a controlling parent of a broadcast licensee. 14 November 2013, Alina Selyukh, “U.S. FCC eases foreign investment limit for broadcast stations”, in Reuters, archived from the original on 2017-08-16

adv

1. Widely in all directions; abroad.
   [O]n reporting to Captain Thrasher he informed me that his orders were to take a detachment of forty men across the French Broad River and turn them loose to wander broadcast over the country as a protection to foraging parties of quartermasters and commissaries, […] 15 January 1864, J[oseph] B[enjamin] Polley, “Some ‘Escape’ Stories”, in A Soldier’s Letters to Charming Nellie, New York, N.Y., Washington, D.C.: The Neale Publishing Company, published 1908, →OCLC, page 195
   The commercial traveller, a personage unknown to antiquity, is one of the striking figures created by the manners and customs of our present epoch. […] Our century will bind the realm of isolated power, abounding as it does in creative genius, to the realm of universal but levelling might; equalizing all products, spreading them broadcast among the masses, and being itself controlled by the principle of unity,—the final expression of all societies. 1885, Honoré de Balzac, Katherine Prescott Wormeley, transl.], “The Illustrious Gaudissart [Scenes from Provincial Life.]”, in The Duchesse de Langeais: With An Episode under the Terror, The Illustrious Gaudissart, A Passion in the Desert, and The Hidden Masterpiece (The Comedy of Human Life), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, 3 Somerset Street, →OCLC, chapter I, page 217
   A special letter of warning against the ravages of the potato-tuber moth in the shape of a press notice has been sent broadcast to newspapers, as well as to others, throughout the country. 1913, F[rank] H[urlbut] Chittenden, “Protection of the Fall Crop and Seed Potatoes”, in The Potato-tuber Moth (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 557), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 6
2. (agriculture, horticulture, archaic) By having its seeds sown over a wide area.
   When [rape is] grown broadcast the superphosphate may be incorporated with the surface soil by the harrow when preparing the ground for the seed or in covering the same. 1893, Thomas Shaw, “Fertilizers for Rape”, in The Rape Plant: Its History, Culture, and Uses (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 11), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office; published by authority of the Secretary of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 15

noun

1. A transmission of a radio or television programme intended to be received by anyone with a receiver.
   No one knows how long it will be until a broadcast from a studio in New York will be viewed in India as well as in Indiana, will be seen in the Congo as it is seen in Chicago. But as surely as we are meeting here today, that day will come; and once again our world will shrink. May 9 1961, Newton Minow, Television and the Public Interest
   After nearly 40 years of continuous broadcast in Hong Kong, a 24-hour transmission of the BBC World Service will go silent in the former British colony, replaced with programming from China's state radio channel. The move by Radio Television Hong Kong, owned by the local government, was meant to "enhance the cultural exchange between the mainland and Hong Kong", a spokesman said. 13 August 2017, Benjamin Haas, “Radio silence: 24-hour broadcast of BBC World Service dropped in Hong Kong: After four decades in the former British colony, BBC World Service is to be mostly replaced with China’s state radio channel”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2017-08-16
2. A programme (bulletin, documentary, show, etc.) so transmitted.
   The DJ was feeling nervous before his first national broadcast.
   We interrupt this broadcast at the request of the police department to bring you the following special bulletin: The dead body of Miss Paula Canfield, missing student at Westlake University and daughter of the multi-millionaire Harold Canfield, has been found in the Arroyo Seco near the Colorado Street Bridge. 1943, Wilfrid H. Pettitt, Nine Girls: A Play in Prologue and Two Acts, Chicago, Ill.: The Dramatic Publishing Company, →OCLC; republished Woodstock, Ill.: The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1971, act I, scene i, pages 15–16
   Radio Free Europe was established by a group of private citizens in December 1949, for the purpose of conducting a propaganda campaign against six Communist-dominated satellites in central and eastern Europe. […] Its program consisted of daily half-hour broadcasts, first to Czechoslovakia and then to Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Albania. 1958, Robert T. Holt, “Introduction”, in Radio Free Europe, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, →OCLC, page 3
3. (agriculture, horticulture, archaic) The act of scattering seed; a crop grown from such seed.
   Since my laſt, I went to ſee a piece of Daniel Fitch's, of Pluckley, Kent. He has two acres of broadcaſt, the oldeſt I have ever ſeen, ſown twenty years ago with barley, like clover. 1785, W. Belcher, “Observations on Lucerne”, in Arthur Young (agriculturist), editor, Annals of Agriculture, and Other Useful Arts, volume III, number 18, London: Printed for the editor, and sold by H. Goldney, No. 15, Paternoster-Row, →OCLC, page 433
   It was stated by Mr. Miller, that the common method was, formerly, to sow the barley-seed with a broadcast at two sowings; the first being harrowed in once, but the second not until the seed is buried; […] 1807, “BARLEY”, in The Complete Farmer; or, General Dictionary of Agriculture and Husbandry: Comprehending the Most Improved Methods of Cultivation; the Different Modes of Raising Timber, Fruit, and Other Trees; and the Modern Management of Live-stock: With Descriptions of the Most Approved Implements, Machinery, and Farm-buildings, 5th wholly re-written and enlarged edition, London: Printed by Rider and Weed, Little Britain, for R. Baldwin [et al.], →OCLC, column 2

verb

1. (transitive) To transmit a message or signal through radio waves or electronic means.
   When the boys reached the business section of Bayport they found that Jackley's confession had already become known. The local radio station had broadcast it in the afternoon news program and people everywhere were discussing it. 1 June 1927, Franklin W. Dixon [pseudonym: Leslie McFarlane], “A Surprise”, in The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys; no. 1), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC
   Practicing vocational service to the limit of one's vision makes a difference whether an employer regards his employees as "robots or human beings"; it makes a difference in the kind of advertisements he publishes or broadcasts; it makes a difference how he reacts under pressure from a competitor; it makes a difference in the quality of his service. 1967 January, “Four Avenues of Service”, in Adventure in Service (Pamphlet [Rotary International]; 52), Evanston, Ill., Zurich: Rotary International, →OCLC, page 69
   The TV is broadcasting a FUZZY PICTURE that shows the weatherman from WVII, the Bango ABC affiliate. 1999 February, Stephen King, Storm of the Century, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, act 3, page 175
   The state of Rhode Island was the scene, on October 30, 1974, of yet another scare involving an adaptation of The War of the Worlds. Broadcast on radio station WPRO, Providence, the drama frightened listeners across the state. The play began with reporters covering a "meteor crash" near Jamestown, the purported Martian landing site. […] City fire stations and other radio and TV outlets reported being inundated with inquiries from anxious callers, as was WPRO, which received more than a hundred calls. 2005, Robert E. Bartholomew, “Introduction”, in H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The War of the Worlds, New York, N.Y.: Cosimo Books, page 8
   The Royal Shakespeare Company will today become the first theatre in the UK to broadcast Shakespeare direct into schools. A production of Richard II, starring David Tennant in the title role, is going to be streamed free of charge into classrooms up and down the country. 15 November 2013, “Shakespeare broadcast direct into schools for first time”, in ITV News, archived from the original on 2017-06-13
   I wanna tell you things and show you all the rest / Broadcast my emotions on the radio and take them off my chest / I hope you're listening / Are you? Are you? 2020, Ava Max, Sorana, Roland Spreckley, Henri Antero Salonen, Cirkut, Jason Gill (lyrics and music), “OMG What's Happening”, in Heaven & Hell, performed by Ava Max
2. (transitive) To transmit a message over a wide area; specifically, to send an email in a single transmission to a (typically large) number of people.
   The break with imperialism and the liberation of Russia from the predatory war, the publication of the secret treaties and the solemn abrogation of the policy of seizing foreign soil, the proclamation of national freedom and the recognition of the independence of Finland, the declaration of Russia as a "Federation of Soviet National Republics" and the militant battle-cry of a resolute struggle against imperialism broadcast all over the world by the Soviet government in millions of pamphlets, newspapers, and leaflets in the mother tongues of the peoples of the East and West—all this could not fail to have its effect on the enslaved East and the bleeding West. [1934], Joseph Stalin, “The October Revolution and the National Question”, in The October Revolution: A Collection of Articles & Speeches (Marxist Library), London: Martin Lawrence, →OCLC, section III (The International Importance of the October Revolution), pages 15–16
   However, truth and lies can usually be confirmed or denied by speaking with eyewitnesses of events in order to verify what took place. The amount of time separating the event in question from when it was broadcasted also makes a difference. 2014, Greg[ory J.] Monette, The Wrong Jesus: Fact, Belief, Legend, Truth ... Making Sense of What You’ve Heard, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, page 178
   Urban legend has it that someone is monitoring all those e-mails broadcast from your work address. Hard to imagine a more boring job but the truth is, and I shouldn't have to tell people this, the record of those e-mails is in a server somewhere and it can be monitored. 2016, Richard A. Moran, “That Permanent Record”, in The Thing about Work: Showing Up and Other Important Matters: A Worker’s Manual, Brookline, Mass.: Bibliomotion
3. (intransitive) To appear as a performer, presenter, or speaker in a broadcast programme.
   She Françoise Dolto] is most well known in France for her broadcasts on France-Inter, Lorsque l'enfant parait; she broadcasted for twelve minutes every day of the week for two years, answering parents' questions. 2009, Sian Morgan, “Françoise Dolto: A Biography”, in Guy Hall, Francoise Hivernel, Sian Morgan, editors, Theory and Practice in Child Psychoanalysis: An Introduction to the Work of Françoise Dolto, London: Karnac Books, page 22
4. (transitive, agriculture, horticulture, archaic) To sow seeds over a wide area.
   I ſhall content myſelf, […] to ſay that the ſeed ſhoud be ſown in the garden, or very good ground, in rows, or broadcaſt, and as ſoon as the plants are of the ſize of a gooſe-quill, to be tranſplanted in rows of eighteen inches diſtance, and eighteen inches apart, one plant from the other: […] 1789, Thomas Boothby Parkyns, “Some Account of the Racine de Disette, or Root of Scarcity, of Its Utility, and the Mode of Treating It; from a Letter of Thomas Boothby Parkyns, Esq., Addressed to the Secretary of the above-mentioned Society [the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce].—From the Same Work [vol. 5 of the Transactions of the Society].”, in The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politics, and Literature, London: Printed for J[ames] Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, →OCLC, page 80, column 1
   I wanted to grow my own cut flowers for the big day so three months earlier I broadcasted an annual seed mix across a few recently cleared borders. 9 November 2013, Sarah Price, “Breathing new life into an old garden [print edition: New life, old garden]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), London, archived from the original on 2016-05-15, page G1