beams

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of beam.

   Steel beams supported the entire roof of the warehouse.

   The flashlights' narrow beams crossed in the dark hallway.

   Note

   A regular plural that does much of its work in building and shipbuilding. In a warehouse, beams are the main horizontal members of steel, timber or concrete. Aboard ship they are the cross members the decks are laid on, held by knees in wooden hulls and by stringers in steel ones. A vessel's beam in the sense of its width is a single measurement, not a set of beams. The same spelling serves the verb form, as in he beams.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of beam.

   He beams every time someone mentions his new grandchild.

   The satellite beams live coverage of the match to millions of homes.

   Note

   Whether this form takes an object depends on which verb is meant. The smiling sense stands alone: she beams when praised. The transmitting senses need something sent: the satellite beams coverage, or a phone beams a file by infrared. Shining can go either way, because a lamp beams, or beams light across a room. The builder's sense, furnishing a ceiling with beams, also takes an object.

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