Noun

1. the handle of a broom - a tool used to sweep the floor
2. (witchcraft) A broom, imbued with magic enabling one to fly riding the handle.

Quotations

• 1997, Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0688155456&id=IROChlxeg6cC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&sig=60X6n2mPiX5qOzn6wsBdOsI3Z4o

  She really was a witch now. No one but a witch could fly a broomstick.

• 1999 J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ISBN 0439136369

  Harry ripped the parcel open and gasped as a magnificent, gleaming broomstick rolled out onto his bedspread. [...] It was a Firebolt, identical to the dream broom Harry had gone to see every day in Diagon Alley.

• 2002, Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0061020613&id=mlChCK02ZcsC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&sig=M6bZxGZ3QzBQVc05HDkwTm6J1sk

  Greebo, hiccuping occasionally, oozed into his accustomed place among the bristles of Nanny’s broomstick. As they rose above the forest a thin plume of smoke also rose from the castle.

• 2003, David Pickering, Cassell's Dictionary of Superstitions http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0304365610&id=DIk63zaZTN4C&lpg=PA90&pg=PA89&sig=CEs80mATVHl_OKLt_wCv-IybcMw

  Most people are familiar with the age-old superstition that witches fly on broomsticks to their covens (though they were formerly also reputed to use shovels, cleft sticks, eggshells, ANIMALS and other means of flight).