beam
Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
Noun
- Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
- And a letter vnto Asaph the keeper of the kings forrest, that he may giue me timber to make beames for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the Citie, and for the house that I...
- One of the principal horizontal structural members, usually of steel, timber, or concrete, of a building.
- The brasswork here, how rich it is in beams, / And how, besides, it makes the whole house sound. - 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […]...
- Lucie opened the door: and what do you think there was inside the hill?—a nice clean kitchen with a flagged floor and wooden beams—just like any other farm kitchen. - 1905, Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle:
- One of the transverse members of a ship's frame on which the decks are laid, and acting as part of the support for keeping the sides of the vessel in shape — supported at the sides by knees in wooden ships and by stringers in steel ones; cf. abeam, beam-ends.
- Capt. King, from Demarara, was invaded by the gale on the evening of the 6th, in lat. 21° 51', and his vessel was thrown on her beam ends. He was forced to cut away her main-mast. Lost a man, who was washed overboard. ....
- 1808 Richard Hall Gower. On the Theory and Practice of Seamanship. It often happens that by a sudden squall of wind a vessel is thrown over upon her beam ends, without a prospect of recovering her erect while she...
- The maximum width of a vessel (note that a vessel with a beam of 15 foot can also be said to be 15 foot abeam).
- This ship has more beam than that one.
- Being only 280 ft. long, with a beam of 66 ft, their speed is moderate, and for a long time difficulty was experienced in steering them. - 1892, Sydney Marow Eardley-Wilmot, The Development of Navies During the Last...
Synonyms: breadth
- The direction across a vessel, perpendicular to fore-and-aft.
- As the vessel passes a landmark, the landmark is said to be abeam. Once the vessel has passed the landmark, it falls abaft the beam, then it gradually falls astern.
- The straight part or shank of an anchor.
- The crossbar of a mechanical balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended.
- The doubtful beam long nods from side to side. - 1714, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC,...
- In steam engines, a heavy iron lever having an oscillating motion on a central axis, one end of which is connected with the piston rod from which it receives motion, and the other with the crank of the wheel shaft.
Synonyms: working beam walking beam
- The central bar of a plow, to which the handles and colter are secured, and to the end of which are attached the oxen or horses that draw it.
- A ray or collection of approximately parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body.
- a beam of light
- a beam of energy
- That light we ſee is burning in my hall: / How farre that little candle throws his beames, / So ſhines a good deed in a naughty world. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the...
- The principal stem of the antler of a deer, which branches grow out from.
Synonyms: hornbeam
- One of the long feathers in the wing of a hawk.
Synonyms: beam feather
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bagmaz? Proto-West Germanic *baum Old English bēam Middle English beem English beam From Middle English beem, from Old English bēam (“tree, cross, gallows, column, pillar, wood, beam, splint, post, stock, rafter, piece of wood”), from Proto-West Germanic *baum, from Proto-Germanic *baumaz (“tree, beam, balk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, swell”). Cognate with North Frisian Boom, buum (“tree”), Saterland Frisian Boom (“tree”), West Frisian beam (“tree”), Cimbrian pome, póom, puam (“tree”), Dutch boom (“tree”), German Low German Boom (“tree”), German Baum (“tree”), Luxembourgish Bam (“tree”), Mòcheno pa'm (“tree”), Vilamovian baojm (“tree”), Yiddish בוים (boym, “tree”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bom (“beam”), Icelandic baðmur (“tree”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌲𐌼𐍃 (bagms, “tree”), Albanian bimë (“a plant”). Doublet of boom. The...
Forms
Hyponyms
Related
Derived
abeam airbeam Airy beam balance beam beamage beam and scales beambird beambreak Beam Bridge beam compass beam-ends beam engine beamer beamform beamformed beamformer beamforming beamful beam hole beamish beamless beamlet beamlike beamline
Verb
- To emit beams of light; to shine; to radiate.
- to beam forth light
- Jesus beams golden light from his solar plexus into Eric's root chakra. - 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 23:
- To smile broadly or especially cheerfully.
- to beam with pride
- To furnish or supply with beams.
- To give the appearance of beams to.
- To transmit matter or information via a high-tech wireless mechanism.
- Beam me up, Scotty; there's no intelligent life down here.
- The injured crewmembers were immediately beamed to sickbay.
- Beam me up (x4) / Beam me up town / Beam me down (x3) / Beam me back downtown - 2010, “Beam Me Up”, in Walking the Midnight Streets, performed by Midnight Magic:
- To transmit, especially by direct wireless means such as infrared.
- To beam a file using the File Transfer Protocol. - 1996, Eric S. Raymond, Guy L. Steele, The New Hacker's Dictionary, page 208:
- To beam a file to another Pocket PC, follow these steps: […] - 2002, Michael Miller, 10 Minute Guide to Pocket PC 2002, page 74:
- To stretch something (for example, an animal hide) on a beam.
- To put (something) on a beam.
- To connect (musical notes) with a beam, or thick line, in music notation.