| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  b m |
| NOUN: | 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 a. A transverse structural member of a ship's frame, used to support a deck and to brace the sides against stress. b. The breadth of a ship at the widest point. c. 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. 6a. The bar of a balance from which weighing pans are suspended. b. 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. 9a. A ray or shaft of light. b. A concentrated stream of particles or a similar propagation of waves: a beam of protons; a beam of light. 10. A radio beam. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: beamed, beam·ing, beams
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To radiate light; shine. 2. To smile expansively. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 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. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bem, from Old English bam. See bheu - in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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