beam

(bēm)
n.

1. A squared-off log or a large, oblong piece of timber, metal, or stone used especially as a horizontal support in construction.
2. Nautical.
   1. A transverse structural member of a ship's frame, used to support a deck and to brace the sides against stress.
   2. The breadth of a ship at the widest point.
   3. The side of a ship: sighted land off the starboard beam.
3. Informal. The widest part of a person's hips: broad in the beam.
4. A steel tube or wooden roller on which the warp is wound in a loom.
5. An oscillating lever connected to an engine piston rod and used to transmit power to the crankshaft.
6. 1. The bar of a balance from which weighing pans are suspended.
   2. Sports. A balance beam.
7. The main horizontal bar on a plow to which the share, colter, and handles are attached.
8. One of the main stems of a deer's antlers.
9. 1. A ray or shaft of light.
   2. A concentrated stream of particles or a similar propagation of waves: a beam of protons; a beam of light.
10. A radio beam.

v., beamed, beam·ing, beams.

v.intr.

1. To radiate light; shine.
2. To smile expansively.

v.tr.

1. To emit or transmit: beam a message via satellite.
2. To express by means of a radiant smile: He beamed his approval of the new idea.

idiom:

on the beam

1. Following a radio beam. Used of aircraft.
2. On the right track; operating correctly.

[Middle English bem, from Old English bēam.]

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A structural member that is fabricated from metal, reinforced or prestressed concrete, wood, fiber-reinforced plastic, or other construction materials and that resists loads perpendicular to its longitudinal axis. Its length is usually much larger than its depth or width. Usually beams are of symmetric cross section; they are designed to bend in this plane of symmetry, which is also the plane of their greatest strength and stiffness. This plane coincides with the plane of the applied loads. Beams are used as primary load-carrying members in bridges and buildings.

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noun

1. A large, oblong piece of wood or other material, used especially for construction: balk, rafter, timber. See matter.
2. A series of particles or waves traveling close together in parallel paths: ray, shaft. See light/darkness.

verb

1. To emit a bright light: blaze, burn, gleam, glow, incandesce, radiate, shine. See light/darkness.
2. To curve the lips upward in expressing amusement, pleasure, or happiness: grin, smile. Idioms: break into a smile, crack a smile. See express.

1. A structural member whose prime function is to carry transverse loads, as a joist, girder, rafter, or purlin. The term beam may be modified by an adjective indicating its location; as, for example, an end beam or side beam. See anchor beam, binding beam, breastsummer beam, camber beam, ceiling beam, collar beam, cross beam, dragon beam, floor beam, ground beam, hammer beam, I-beam, laced beam, perimeter beam, summerbeam, tie beam, top beam, wind beam
2. A group of nearly parallel rays of light.

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i. A processed and directed pulse of energy.
ii. An invisible path produced by radio signals. An aircraft can follow the beam when approaching or going away from a navigational fix. A radar detects an aircraft when it is illuminated by its beam.



A localizer with both front beam and back beam.
iii. A long, heavy, metallic or wooden member in any structure to withstand any bending and shearing loads.



iv. The direction extending from the side of an airplane at right angles to the plane of symmetry.



v. The breadth at its maximum width of an airplane fuselage, hull, or vessel.

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noun
noun

1: The (width of the) hips or buttocks; esp. in phr. broad in the beam. (1929 —) .
Mrs. Hicks-Beach A cast-off of Jim's. He's grown too broad in the beam for it (1944).

2: to be on the beam to be on the right track, right, sane. So to be off (the) beam. (1941 —) .
Observer Hugh Burden, as Barnaby, was right on the beam from the start (1948).

[In sense 2, from an earlier sense, to be on the course indicated by a radio beam.]

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For a list of words related to beaming, see:

• Healthy, fit, bright, or strong
• Beautiful, attractive, or well-formed

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See words rhyming with "beam."

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