Word of the Day: Groom

groom / ɡro͞om   noun  

1. a man who is to be married; a bridegroom

In Hollywood, brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom. Groucho Marx, 1890-1977  

2. a person who tends to horses in a stable, typically male

Give me the handling of a horse for twenty minutes, and I’ll tell you what sort of a groom he has had. from ‘Black Beauty’ by Anna Sewell, 1820-1878  

3. an officer in the English royal household

The groom of the stole was the effective head of the royal bedchamber, with the right to attend the Sovereign at all times and to regulate access to the bedchamber and closet even when absent. british-history.ac.uk   verb  

1. of a person, to make tidy or attractive

Whether we’re conscious of it or not, our work and personal lives are made up of daily rituals, including when we eat our meals, how we shower or groom, or how we approach our daily descent into the digital world of email communication. Chip Conley, 1960-  

2. to clean and tend to a dog, horse, etc.

Dogs love us not only because we feed them, walk them, or groom them, or protect them, but because we are fun. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, 1941-  

3. to prepare for a position or situation

Every failure will groom you for your next big reward. Ryan Murphy, 1965-  

4. of an animal, to clean oneself or another in order to rid of dirt, mites, etc.

Southerners ask intimate questions in the way monkeys groom each other for lice, not to pry but to make you feel cared for. from ‘Tongues of Angels’ by Reynolds Price, 1933-2011