groom

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   care for one's external appearance

   I am always well-groomed.

2. 2
   verb

   give a neat appearance to

   groom the dogs

3. 3
   verb

   educate for a future role or function

   I am grooming my son to become my successor.

4. 4
   noun

   A person who looks after horses.

   Toward the end of the war, Benoit was sent off on his own with forged papers; he wound up working as a horse groom at a chalet in the Loire valley. Mandelbrot describes this harrowing youth with great sangfroid.

5. 5
   noun

   One of several officers of the English royal household, chiefly in the lord chamberlain's department.

   the groom of the chamber; the groom of the stole

6. 6
   noun

   A male servant, or more generally, a common man.

   The needy groom, that never finger'd groat, Would make a miracle of thus much coin …

7. 7
   noun

   A brushing or cleaning, as of a dog or horse.

   Give the mare a quick groom before you take her out.

8. 8
   verb

   To care for (horses or other animals) by brushing and cleaning them.

   2010 (April 20) "The Collection" s1e6 of TV series Justified The wife didn't care about riding, but Owen did. Well, he cared about me. I went from doing everything — grooming, feeding, looking out — to being handed the reins of the most magnificent creatures ready to ride.

Etymology

From Middle English grom, grome (“man-child, boy, youth”), of uncertain origin. Apparently related to Middle Dutch grom (“boy”), Old Icelandic grómr, gromr (“man, manservant, boy”), Old French gromme (“manservant”), and also to Middle Dutch grom (“fish guts”), Middle Low German grôm (“fish guts”), from the same Proto-Germanic root. Possibly from Old English *grōm, from Proto-West Germanic *grōm (“swollen belly, stomach tumour, womb-child, fish roe, fish guts”), from Proto-Germanic *grōaną (“to grow”). Alternative etymology describes Middle English grom, grome as an alteration of gome (“man”) w…