beam /bēm/

1. A large and straight piece of timber or steel forming one of the main structural members of a building, etc
2. Any of the transverse pieces of framing extending across a ship's hull
3. The part of a balance from which the scales hang
4. The stem, or main part of a deerhorn, an anchor or a plough
5. Either of the two wooden cylinders in a loom
6. A raised horizontal bar on which gymnasts perform balancing exercises (gymnastics)
7. A great fault (figurative; from the metaphor of the mote and the beam in the Bible, Matthew 7.3)
8. A tree (obsolete except in hornbeam, whitebeam, etc)
9. The greatest width of a ship or boat
10. Breadth
11. A shaft or ray of light or other radiations
12. A gleam
13. A broad smile, lighting up the face

1. To send forth
2. To place on a beam
3. To transmit or direct, eg by beam system

1. To shine
2. To smile radiantly

beamˈer noun

1. A workman or machine that puts yarn on the beam of a loom
2. A fast, head-high ball (cricket)
3. A beam trawler

beamˈily adverb

Radiantly

beamˈiness noun

1. Radiance
2. Breadth

beamˈing noun and adjective

beamˈingly adverb

beamˈish adjective

Radiant

beamˈless adjective

1. Without beams
2. Emitting no rays

beamˈlet noun

A little beam

beamˈy adjective

1. Shining
2. Radiant
3. Massive like a weaver's beam
4. Broad

beam compass noun

An instrument consisting of a beam and adjustable legs, for drawing extra-large circles

beamˈ-ends plural noun

The ends of the transverse beams of a ship

beamˈ-engine noun

A steam-engine with a beam connecting the piston-rod and the crank of the wheel-shaft or the buckets of a pump

beam sea noun

One rolling against the ship's side

beam splitter noun

A device used to divide a beam of light, radiation, etc into two or more separate beams

beam system noun

A system whereby, with the aid of reflectors, short wireless waves are projected (like a lighthouse beam) in a particular direction, not radiated in all directions

beam trawl noun

A trawling net kept open by a beam along its upper lip, resting on runners

beam trawler noun

beam trawling noun

beam tree noun

A pleonastic name for the whitebeam

beam weapon noun

Any weapon whose destructive force consists of a beam of energy such as subatomic particles

abaft or before the beam

Behind or before a line across the greatest width of a ship

broad in the beam

Wide-hipped

fly the beam

To fly an aircraft in the direction shown by a radio beam

lee beam

The side away from, or towards, the wind

off the beam

1. Off the course shown by a radio beam
2. Off the right track (figurative)

on her beam-ends

Of a ship, so much inclined to one side that the beams become nearly vertical

on one's beam-ends

In acute distress, destitute

on the beam

1. In the direction of a ship's beams, at right angles to her course
2. On the course shown by a radio beam
3. On the right track (figurative)

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