groomer

From groom +‎ -er.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹuː.mə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹu.məɹ/
• Rhymes: -uːmə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: groom‧er

groomer (plural groomers)

1. One that grooms; that attends to apperance of a person or animal.
   1. A person who or an animal (the groomee) which cares for an animal by brushing and cleaning.

      Synonym: groom

      • 2011, John Davies, How to Take Care of a Dog, page 34:

        Does he or she have any certifications or accreditations as a dog groomer? Are there any breeds or types of dogs he or she specializes in?

   2. A person who takes care for another person's appearance and clothing.
   3. (uncommon) One who cares for their own personal appearance.
      • 2012 June 15, Sarah Mlynowski, Monkey Business, Harlequin, →ISBN:

        I wonder what her pubic hair looks like. Perfectly manicured? A strip. She seems like a groomer. I down the glass as if it's a shot. The wine floats through my chest, warming me. Must stop imagining Kimmy's pubic hair. Brown pubic hair.

      • 2013 April 2, Nicole Knepper, Moms Who Drink and Swear: True Tales of Loving My Kids While Losing My Mind, Penguin, →ISBN:

        Now even though I am the quickest groomer/pooper in the family, I'm the one who spends the most time in the bathroom. Why? Because apparently I am the only one who notices the dried shit, snot, toothpaste, pubic hair, dog hair, […]

      • 2016 March 15, Sawyer Bennett, Hawke: A Cold Fury Hockey Novel, Loveswept, →ISBN:

        "Actually just thinking about how good that beard looks on you. What made you decide to keep it after the play-offs?" "Lazy groomer, I guess," he says before taking another bite of his sandwich.

      • 2021 February 2, Ina Park, Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs, Flatiron Books, →ISBN:

        One of the patients he had seen was a pubic groomer, so there was scant hair in the man's groin. Tae-Wol had witnessed lice furiously scrambling, trying to cling to this patient's stubbly pubic growth.

2. A tool used for grooming.
   1. A brush used to groom animals.
   2. A tool used to trim a person's hair.
      • 2007 December 26, Jack Henderson, Circumference of Darkness, Bantam, →ISBN, page 402:

        Later, his face close to the mirror, he ran the electric groomer he'd found beside the sink over his beard until it was cropped close, and then with a razor and milled soap he shaved it into the semblance of a style he remembered.

      • 2009 January 1, Linda Turner, Bounty Hunter's Woman, Silhouette, →ISBN, page 67:

        Instead, she retrieved an electric men's all-in-one groomer from the bag of supplies from the drugstore and proceeded to give him a military buzz cut.

      • 2012 March 1, Tucker Max, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, Citadel, →ISBN:

        I wasn't really thinking about how nasty my pubes are, or whether this means that I should start trimming my pubes, […] Then my next thought was, "I wonder how many calories my pubes have?" […] Instead [of finding out], I use a groomer and trim the area.

      • 2015 April 15, Barbara Ellen Brink, Roadkill, Barbara Ellen Brink, →ISBN:

        "Does your father have an electric beard groomer we could borrow? I have some disposable razors, but Jack wants to keep his beard. I thought we could just trim it up a bit." She wiped the smile off her face and nodded.

      • 2019 November 15, T. Vincent Beck, Wading Out, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

        The beard turned out to be too thick for the shaver, but under the sink, he found a groomer/shaver and trimmed his beard to a respectful stubble.

3. One who cleans the inside of an airplane between flights.
   • 2007, Doug Morris, From the Flight Deck: Plane Talk and Sky Science, page 77:

     On board, groomers, commissary, and flight attendants work diligently.

   • 2009, Liesl Miller Orenic, On the Ground: Labor Struggle in the American Airline Industry:

     In a letter to Harrison, Kief described the job definition and pay scale of "groomers" versus other employees.

4. (skiing, slang) A piste serviced by snow groomers.
5. (colloquial) One who attempts to gain the trust of a minor in order to exploit them, especially sexually.
   • 2003 October 9, Sarah Left, “Internet 'groomer' gets five-year sentence”, in The Guardian‎:

     Police called Douglas Lindsell, 64, of Twickenham, "the most prolific internet groomer ever caught" and said his conversations with the girls were "overtly sexual in nature".

   • 2017 September 30, Yasmin Alibhai-brown, “Wives of Muslim men jailed for rape reveal why they blame the victims”, in Mail Online‎:

     But later, at a separate meeting, I encountered Suju, the wife of another jailed groomer. She was afraid of him but she, too, thinks white girls are: 'Filthy. How they dress. They have no shame, no fear of Allah.'

   • 2018 June 25, David Conn, “George Ormond was 'classic groomer and manipulator', jury told”, in The Guardian‎:

     The former Newcastle United coaching assistant George Ormond was a "wicked" groomer and manipulator who sexually abused young boys dreaming of becoming professional footballers, the jury at his trial has been told.

   • 2024 July 30, Renate van der Zee, “Why the Netherlands seems unfazed by sending a convicted child rapist to the Olympics”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     There are also those, such as the court reporter Chris Klomp, who have argued that he is not the “sex monster” or “groomer” he has been made out to be in some English-language media.

6. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)(alt-right, derogatory, offensive, anti-LGBTQ slur) An individual, particularly an LGBT person or drag queen, framed as a predator or threat to children; in particular, someone who makes children aware of LGBT people or drag, from the perspective of those who consider this to be sexual.
   • 2022 December 10, Maggie Astor, “Transgender Americans Feel Under Siege as Political Vitriol Rises”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-26:

     Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia declared that "communist groomers" wanted to "allow a for-profit medical industry to chop off these confused children's genitals."

   • 2022 December 16, Andrew Mark Miller, “LGBT group warns 'dragphobia' is on the rise, conservatives blast post on Twitter”, in Fox News‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-22:

     "Sooo...the groomers are calling anti-groomers 'dragphobes' now... got it," conservative comedian Tim Young posted.

   • 2022 December 21, Andrew Davis, “Drag queens take on Tennessee bill seeking to restrict their performances”, in NBC News‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-26:

     In December, far right groups including the Patriot Front and Proud Boys contributed to the cancellation of an Ohio drag storytime event. Many demonstrators showed up armed, while others held up signs with slogans like: "Groomers not welcome" and "Groomers are Child Abusers."

   • 2022 December 21, Anya Zoledziowski, “How 2022 Became the Year Trans Hate Went Mainstream”, in VICE‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-27:

     "It seems to be essentially a sort of pedophilic, predatory farm system that the groomers have set up," Walsh said.

   • , archived from the original on 2022-12-26:

     After his takeover, use of the N-word increased by 202 percent; the use of homophobic, misogynist, and transphobic slurs went up at double-digit rates; the use of the slur groomer has increased exponentially.]

   • 2023 March 3, Charlie Kirk, quotee, “Charlie Kirk: "Groomers can't reproduce, so instead they recruit. They go serve on school boards."”, in Media Matters‎, archived from the original on 2023-03-04:

     By the way, the buried lede of this is that 60 percent of this school board is LGBT, is gay. The question is, do Christians run for school boards as much as the LGBT community does? No. As I said yesterday, which is groomers can't reproduce, so instead they recruit. So, they go serve on school boards. And they go do drag queens. And they do all this other sort of disgusting nauseating stuff.

   • 2024 May 8, Faith Bugenhagen, “Librarians Under Siege in Montgomery County?”, in Houston Press:

     Attacks against these librarians and administrative employees started to multiply over a year ago when a new Facebook group called Two Moms and Some Books was born. “I think the lowest point, at least for me, is when they started calling us groomers,” said a current librarian who we will call Avery. “That’s not really a word you throw around to people, even people you don’t like.”

• (anti-LGBTQ slur): The term groomer is commonly used by right-wing commentators and politicians in context of a grooming conspiracy theory (see quotations and further reading).

• pedophile

• “Online Anti-LGBTQ Hate Terms Defined: “Groomer””, in GLAAD, launched 2022
• Aoife Gallagher, Tim Squirrell (2023 January 16) “The ‘Groomer’ Slur”, in Institute for Strategic Dialogue

• groomer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• LGBT grooming conspiracy theory on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• regroom