Boom

1. v. t. To extend, or push, with a boom or pole; as, to boom out a sail; to boom off a boat.
2. n. A long pole or spar, run out for the purpose of extending the bottom of a particular sail; as, the jib boom, the studding-sail boom, etc.
3. n. A long spar or beam, projecting from the mast of a derrick, from the outer end of which the body to be lifted is suspended.
4. n. A pole with a conspicuous top, set up to mark the channel in a river or harbor.
5. n. A strong chain cable, or line of spars bound together, extended across a river or the mouth of a harbor, to obstruct navigation or passage.
6. n. A line of connected floating timbers stretched across a river, or inclosing an area of water, to keep saw logs, etc., from floating away.
7. n. A strong and extensive advance, with more or less noisy excitement; — applied colloquially or humorously to market prices, the demand for stocks or commodities and to political chances of aspirants to office; as, a boom in the stock market; a boom in coffee.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.