beam

English Online Dictionary. What means beam‎? What does beam mean?

English

Etymology

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 West Frisian beam (“tree”), Saterland Frisian Boom (“tree”), Dutch boom (“tree”), German Low German Boom (“tree”), German Baum (“tree”), Luxembourgish Bam (“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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: bēm, IPA^(key): /biːm/
• Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

beam (plural beams)

1. (structural) Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
2. (structural) One of the principal horizontal structural members, usually of steel, timber, or concrete, of a building.
3. (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.
   • 1805 Alexander Tilloch. Account of a terrible Hurricane in the West Indies 1804. Philosophical Magazine. Vol. XXI. P. 14

     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.
     . . .
     Capt. Mood, on a voyage from Alexandria (Virginia), to St. Mary's (Georgia), was, on the night of the 7th, in the Gulf Stream, to the eastward of Charlston: the wind there was east-north-east, and so hard as to throw his vessel on her beam ends. She lay several hours in this situation. Several of his crew were 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 remains upon the same tack, therefore attempts are made to veer her; but as the rudder lies along the surface of the water it becomes useless, and as the sails are either blown from the yards, or become unmanageable, recourse is had to cutting away the main-mast and mizen-mast, that the ship may veer under the fore-mast:-a most desperate expedient, particularly if the ship is far distant from port!

4. (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).

   Synonym: breadth
5. (nautical) 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.

6. (nautical) The straight part or shank of an anchor.
7. (mechanical) The crossbar of a mechanical balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended.
8. (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.

   Synonyms: working beam, walking beam

9. (agricultural) 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.
10. (physics) A ray or collection of approximately parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body.

    a beam of light

    a beam of energy
11. (anatomical, informal) The principal stem of the antler of a deer.
12. (anatomical, informal) One of the long feathers in the wing of a hawk.

    Synonym: beam feather

13. (literary) The pole of a carriage or chariot.
15. (textiles) A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving and the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled, as it is woven.
16. (figuratively) A ray; a gleam.

    a beam of hope, or of comfort
17. (music) A horizontal bar which connects the stems of two or more notes to group them and to indicate metric value.
18. (railway) An elevated rectangular dirt pile used to cheaply build an elevated portion of a railway.
19. (gymnastics) Ellipsis of balance beam.
20. A broad smile.

Hyponyms

(structural element):

• H-beam
• I-beam
• T-beam

(textiles):

• fore beam
• back beam

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Thesaurus:stick

Verb

beam (third-person singular simple present beams, present participle beaming, simple past and past participle beamed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To emit beams of light; to shine; to radiate.
2. (intransitive, figuratively) To smile broadly or especially cheerfully.

3. (transitive) To furnish or supply with beams.
4. (transitive) To give the appearance of beams to.
5. (transitive, science fiction) To transmit matter or information via a high-tech wireless mechanism.
6. (transitive, computing) To transmit, especially by direct wireless means such as infrared.
7. (transitive, currying) To stretch something (for example, an animal hide) on a beam.
8. (transitive, weaving) To put (something) on a beam.
9. (transitive, music) To connect (musical notes) with a beam, or thick line, in music notation.

Derived terms

• beam up

Translations

Descendants

• → German: beamen
• → Dutch: beamen
• → Japanese: ビーム

Anagrams

• Bame, BAME, ameb-, ambe, Mabe, bema, mabe, Emba

German

Pronunciation

Verb

beam

1. singular imperative of beamen

Middle English

Noun

beam

1. (Northern or Early Middle English) Alternative form of beem

Old English

Alternative forms

• bēom

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *baum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bæ͜ɑːm/

Noun

bēam m

1. tree

   Synonym: trēow

2. beam of wood
3. gallows

   Synonyms: ġealga, rōd

4. (by extension) the Cross
   • Codex Vercillensis

Declension

Derived terms

• siġebēam

Descendants

• Middle English: beem, beam, bem, beme, beume, beam, beame (Northern), beam, beom (Early Middle English)
  • English: beam
    • → German: beamen
    • → Japanese: ビーム
    • → Dutch: beamen
  • Scots: beam

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [be̯am]

Verb

beam

1. first-person singular/plural imperfect indicative of bea

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian bām, from Proto-West Germanic *baum.

Cognate with Dutch boom, English beam, German Baum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪə̯m/

Noun

beam c (plural beammen, diminutive beamke)

1. tree

Derived terms

• hefbeam

Further reading

• “beam”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011