The AI-powered English dictionary
comparative more toom, superlative most toom
(rare or dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Empty; bare. quotations
Gin she was toom afore, she's toomer now, Her heart was like to loup out at her mou'.
1778, Alexander Ross, Fortunate Shepherdess, page 62
Then hie to the Custom House, add to your pleasures, Now you're well cover'd, so toom the new measures: It ne'er will be finish'd, I'll wager a groat, Till they've cut a canal te admit five-men boats!
1825, The Tyneside Songster
Every time Gavin's cup went to his lips Nanny calculated (correctly) how much he had drunk, and yet, when the right moment arrived, she asked in the English voice that is fashionable at ceremonies, "if his cup was toom."
1895, James Matthew Barrie, The Little Minister, page 135
"You saw it was toom. The lamp had gone out itself, or else — what's that?"
1896, Scribner's Magazine, volume 20
It seemed to him that his soul had gone from him, and he was as toom as a hazel shell.
1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
Bare is much better. 'When she got there, the cupboard was bare' does call up the distress of those with naked larders. 'The cupboard was empty' would not be poignant at all. But 'the cupboard was toom' would utter the voice of real despair.
1951, Ivor John Carnegie Brown, I break my word, page 120
His tabard was 'toom' — bare or empty — and Balliol, the unmade king, became 'Toom Tabard'.
1974, Ranald Nicholson, Scotland: the later Middle Ages, page 50
plural tooms
(chiefly Scottish) A piece of waste ground where rubbish is deposited. examples
third-person singular simple present tooms, present participle tooming, simple past and past participle toomed
(rare or dialectal) To empty; teem.
usually uncountable, plural tooms
Vacant time, leisure. quotations examples
He had exhausted Bath, but his connections and introductions made the transition easy. There was toom for two in the capital.
1978, Art and Artists