Beam Definition

bēm
beamed, beaming, beams
noun
beams
A squared-off log or a large, oblong piece of timber, metal, or stone used especially as a horizontal support in construction.
American Heritage
The squared-off trunk of a tree.
Webster's New World
A transverse structural member of a ship's frame, used to support a deck and to brace the sides against stress.
American Heritage
A long, thick piece of wood, metal, or stone, used in building.
Webster's New World
The breadth of a ship at the widest point.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
verb
beamed, beaming, beams
To radiate light; shine.
American Heritage
To give out (shafts of light); radiate in a beam or beams.
Webster's New World
To shine brightly; be radiant.
Webster's New World
To smile expansively.
American Heritage
To direct or aim (a radio signal, program, etc.)
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
idiom
on the beam
  • Following a radio beam. Used of aircraft.
  • On the right track; operating correctly.
American Heritage
beam in one's own eye
  • a major moral flaw in oneself which one ignores while criticizing minor faults in others
Webster's New World
off the beam
  • not following the direction of a guiding beam, as an airplane
Webster's New World
on the beam
  • in a direction at right angles to the keel of a ship; abeam
  • following the direction of a guiding beam, as an airplane
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Beam

Noun

Singular:
beam
Plural:
beams

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Beam

  • on the beam
  • beam in one's own eye
  • off the beam
  • on the beam

Origin of 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-Germanic *baumaz (“tree, beam, balk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhū- (“to grow, swell”). Cognate with West Frisian beam (“tree”), Dutch boom (“tree”), German Baum (“tree”), Albanian bimë (“a plant”) and Latin pōmō (“fruit tree”).

    From Wiktionary

  • The verb is from Middle English bemen, from Old English bēamian (“to shine, to cast forth rays or beams of light”), from the noun.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English bem from Old English bēam bheuə- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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