Same as BROOMSTAFF. To marry over the broomstick: to go through a quasi-marriage ceremony, in which the parties jump over a broomstick; also called ‘to jump the besom.’
1683. trans. Erasmus’ Moriæ Enc., 58. Shall take a Broom-stick for a streight-bodied woman.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 148. A story of a witch upon a broomstick, & a flight in the air.
1732. Pope, Use of Riches, II. 97. The thriving plants, ignoble broomsticks made.
1824. Macaulay, Misc. Writ. (1860), I. 95. They were married over a broom-stick.
1841. Miall, Nonconf., I. 265. Not more hopeless … the attempt to make a broomstick bud.
1881. J. Hawthorne, Fort. Fool, I. iv. ‘There’s some as think she was married over the broom-stick, if she was married at all.’
b. comb.
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 16. He had no inclination for a Broomstick-marriage.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 362. The broomstick-whirl’d hags that appear in Macbeth.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 353. I never had a wife, but I have had two or three broomstick matches, though they never turned out happy.
