beam
/ˈbiːm/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms beams beaming beamed
- noun (structural) Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
- noun (structural) One of the principal horizontal structural members, usually of steel, timber, or concrete, of a building.
- noun (nautical) 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.
- noun (nautical) 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.”
- noun (nautical) The direction across a vessel, perpendicular to fore-and-aft.
- noun (nautical) The straight part or shank of an anchor.
- noun (mechanical) The crossbar of a mechanical balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended.
- noun (mechanical) 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.
- verb (ambitransitive) To emit beams of light; to shine; to radiate. “to beam forth light”
- verb (intransitive, figuratively) To smile broadly or especially cheerfully. “to beam with pride”
- verb (transitive) To furnish or supply with beams.
- verb (transitive) To give the appearance of beams to.
- verb (transitive, science fiction) To transmit matter or information via a high-tech wireless mechanism. “Beam me up, Scotty; there's no intelligent life down here.”
- verb (transitive, computing) To transmit, especially by direct wireless means such as infrared.
- verb (transitive, currying) To stretch something (for example, an animal hide) on a beam.
- verb (transitive, weaving) To put (something) on a beam.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
breadth working beam walking beam hornbeam beam feather radio beam ray electron beam beam of light light beam ray of light shaft shaft of light irradiation balance beam shine air send broadcast transmit glow radiate
Etymology
From Middle English bem, 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 original English meaning of beam ("tree") is preserved in some compound words such as quickbeam.
The verb is from Middle English bemen, from Old English bēamian (“to shine, to cast forth rays or beams of light”), from the noun.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
- noun One of the principal horizontal timbers of a building or ship.
- verb To send forth; to emit; --followed ordinarily by forth; as, to beam forth light.
- verb To emit beams of light.
Etymology [AS. beám beam, post, tree, ray of light; akin to OFries. bam tree, OS. b, D. boom, OHG. boum, poum, G. baum, Icel. ba, Goth. bahms and Gr. a growth, to become, to be. Cf. L. radius staff, rod, spoke of a wheel, beam or ray, and G. strahl arrow, spoke of a wheel, ray or beam, flash of lightning. Be; cf. Boom a spar.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “beam”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details