beam

Less common meanings

10. 10
    a big smilenouncountable

    A broad smile spreading across the face.

    His face broke into a beam as the bride walked in.

    The coach's usual frown gave way to a broad beam as the final whistle blew.

    Similarsmile, grin

    Note

    It behaves like smile or grin, as something worn on the face and hard to take off. Phil McNulty's 2023 BBC piece on Declan Rice has a player who "could barely remove the beam from his face." It is more common as the smiling verb than as a noun. As a noun it implies a smile wide and open enough to seem to shine. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Phil McNulty wrote the BBC article about Declan Rice in 2023. bbc.com
    • McNulty describes Rice using the quoted wording. bbc.com
11. 11
    across a shipnouncountable

    The direction across a vessel, at right angles to its fore-and-aft line.

    Heavy swells rolling in on the beam made the crossing uncomfortable.

    The captain spotted the buoy just off the starboard beam.

    Note

    A direction rather than an object, and the anchor point for a set of positional terms. A landmark straight off the side is abeam. Once the ship has passed it, the landmark falls abaft the beam, and finally it falls astern. Sailors also speak of the port or starboard beam, and of seas or wind "on the beam," meaning they strike the vessel squarely from the side. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • In this nautical sense, beam denotes a direction perpendicular to the vessel's length; a landmark in that direction is abeam. waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
    • After a vessel passes a landmark, it lies abaft the beam. en.wikipedia.org
    • A landmark left behind the vessel is astern. waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
    • Port and starboard beams describe the perpendicular directions to either side, including for wind. data.pmel.noaa.gov
    • A beam sea approaches the vessel squarely from the side. nsw.gov.au
12. 12
    scale barnouncountable

    The horizontal crossbar of a mechanical balance, from whose ends the weighing pans are suspended.

    The pharmacist added small weights until the beam swung level.

    Dust on the beam can throw off a sensitive balance's readings.

    Similararm, crossbar

    Note

    The weighing sense, and one that lends itself to images of uncertainty. A beam that has not settled is a mind that has not decided. In Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, "the doubtful beam long nods from side to side." The full name is balance beam, the same compound that gymnastics uses for its narrow rail. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The quoted words occur in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, in the narrator's description of Jove's scales. gutenberg.org
    • Balance beam names both the balance's horizontal member and the narrow gymnastics apparatus. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    deck supportnouncountable

    One of the transverse members of a ship's frame on which the decks are laid, also helping hold the sides of the hull in shape.

    In dry dock, the shipwrights replaced a cracked beam under the schooner's main deck.

    The deck beams of the schooner were notched into the frames along each side.

    Note

    Shipbuilding's crosswise timber runs from side to side under the deck planking. In a wooden hull, knees fasten it to the frames at each end; steel ships use bracket plates for the same job. Its ends give the phrase beam ends: a vessel thrown on her beam ends has been knocked onto her side, often by a sudden squall, as Richard Hall Gower describes in A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Seamanship. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

    • A ship's deck beam runs crosswise beneath the deck planking. whalesite.org
    • Knees connect wooden deck beams to the ship's frames. whalesite.org
    • Metal ship construction uses bracket plates to connect beams and frames. pdfcoffee.com
    • Beam ends refers to the ends of a ship's transverse beams. en.wiktionary.org
    • A vessel on her beam ends has heeled onto her side. whalesite.org
    • Gower describes sudden squalls frequently throwing vessels onto their beam ends. en.wiktionary.org
    • Richard Hall Gower wrote A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Seamanship. en.wikipedia.org
14. 14
    thick note linenouncountable

    A horizontal bar connecting the stems of two or more notes to group them and show their rhythmic value.

    In the second measure, one beam links the four eighth notes so the player can see the beat at a glance.

    Beams in older vocal scores often follow the syllables of the text rather than the beat.

    Note

    An engraver's alternative to separate flags. When notes shorter than a quarter note are joined, the bar takes over the flag's job. The number of bars carries the rhythm: one for eighth notes, two for sixteenths. Beams may slant to follow the melody. Their other job is to show where the beats fall, and choosing that grouping is what the verb describes. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Beams replace separate flags in music engraving. lilypond.org
    • Eighth notes use one beam and sixteenth notes use two. odp.library.tamu.edu
    • Beam slant can reflect the melodic contour. howmusicworks.org
    • Beaming groups notes to clarify the beat. open-musictheory.github.io
15. 15
    draw note linesverbtransitive

    To connect musical notes with a beam, a thick horizontal line, in written music notation.

    Composers usually beam eighth notes in groups that match the beat.

    The engraving software beams notes automatically according to the time signature.

    Note

    Notes can be beamed in different ways, and the choice tells a player where the beats fall. Composers and engravers usually group eighth and sixteenth notes so that each group matches a beat of the meter. Notation software follows the same principle when it beams automatically. A badly beamed bar is harder to read even though no note in it has changed. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Beaming can vary and helps show the beats. personal.kent.edu
    • Grouping eighth and sixteenth notes within individual beats is a standard beaming principle. open.edu
    • Automatic beaming in notation software follows the time signature. handbook.musescore.org
    • Poor beaming can obscure the meter without changing the notes. andremount.net
16. 16
    antler stemnouncountable

    The principal stem of a deer's antler, from which the individual tines branch.

    The old stag carried antlers with a beam as thick as a man's wrist.

    Each beam swept back and then curved forward over the deer's ears.

    Note

    Hunters and naturalists use this word for the main shaft of each antler, the one the tines branch from. It belongs to the vocabulary of trophy scoring, where beam length and beam circumference are standard measurements. A description of a rack will often praise the beams for their mass and the tines for their number. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The beam is the main antler shaft from which points branch. boone-crockett.org
    • Main-beam length is a standard trophy-scoring measurement. boone-crockett.org
    • Beam circumference is a standard trophy-scoring measurement. boone-crockett.org
17. 17
    noun

    In a steam engine, a heavy lever that rocks on a central pivot, passing the piston's motion at one end to a pump rod or, in later engines, to a crank that turns a shaft.
18. 18
    noun

    A wooden cylinder on a loom that holds the warp threads before weaving or rolls up the cloth as it is woven.
19. 19
    verb

    To put (something, such as warp yarn or cloth) onto a beam of a loom.
20. 20
    noun

    The straight part of an anchor; the shank, which runs from the ring at the top down to the arms.
21. 21
    noun

    The central bar of a plow; the handles and cutting blade attach to it, and the oxen or horses that pull the plow are hitched to its front end.
22. 22
    nouncolloquial

    In falconry, any of the long feathers of a hawk's wing.
23. 23
    nounliterary

    The pole of a carriage or chariot, extending forward between the horses that draw it.
24. 24
    noun

    A raised, rectangular bank of earth built as an inexpensive way to carry a railway above the surrounding ground.
25. 25
    verb

    To stretch something, such as an animal hide, over a beam in order to work on it.