Definitions for beam

• Definition
• Anagrams (34)

beam beam

Spelling: [beem]

IPA: /bim/

Beam is a 4 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 8 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 10 points.

You can make 34 anagrams from letters in beam (abem).

Definitions for beam

noun

1. any of various relatively long pieces of metal, wood, stone, etc., manufactured or shaped especially for use as rigid members or parts of structures or machines.
2. Building Trades. a horizontal bearing member, as a joist or lintel.
3. Engineering. a rigid member or structure supported at each end, subject to bending stresses from a direction perpendicular to its length.
4. Nautical. a horizontal structural member, usually transverse, for supporting the decks and flats of a vessel. the extreme width of a vessel. the shank of an anchor.
5. Aeronautics. the direction perpendicular to the plane of symmetry of an aircraft and outward from the side.
6. the widest part.
7. Slang. the measure across both hips or buttocks:
8. Machinery. walking beam. (in a loom) a roller or cylinder on which the warp is wound before weaving. a similar cylinder on which cloth is wound as it is woven.
9. the crossbar of a balance, from the ends of which the scales or pans are suspended.
10. a ray of light:
11. a group of nearly parallel rays.
12. Radio, Aeronautics. a signal transmitted along a narrow course, used to guide pilots through darkness, bad weather, etc.
13. Electronics. a narrow stream of electrons, as that emitted from the electron gun of a cathode ray tube.
14. the angle at which a microphone or loudspeaker functions best.
15. the cone-shaped range of effective use of a microphone or loudspeaker.
16. Citizens Band Radio Slang. beam antenna.
17. a gleam; suggestion:
18. a radiant smile.
19. the principal stem of the antler of a deer.

Idioms

1. beam in, Citizens Band Radio Slang. to be received under optimum conditions; be heard loud and clear:
2. fly the beam, Radio, Aeronautics. (of an aircraft) to be guided by a beam.
3. off the beam, not on the course indicated by a radio beam. Informal. wrong; incorrect:
4. on the beam, on the course indicated by a radio beam, as an airplane. Nautical. at right angles to the keel. Informal. proceeding well; correct; exact:

verb (used with object)

1. to emit in or as in beams or rays.
2. Radio. to transmit (a signal) in a particular direction.
3. Radio and Television. to direct (a program, commercial message, etc.) to a predetermined audience.

verb (used without object)

1. to emit beams, as of light.
2. to smile radiantly or happily.

Origin of beam

before 900; Middle English beem, Old English bēam tree, post, ray of light; cognate with Old Frisian bām, Old Saxon bōm, Dutch boom, Old High German boum (German Baum), Gothic bagms, Old Nors

Examples for beam

Her beam was irresistible, and they went to the large parlor.

The pulses are from a beam of light produced by the intense magnetic field, which sweeps across Earth as the neutron star rotates.

I keep the beam out of my own eye which I have no hope of pulling out of my neighhour's.

A beam of light touching Ferry's face made his smile haggard.

Her door stands ajar, halving the room with a beam of light.

A Goliath o' Gath, wha hath a stroke like untae a weaver's beam.

He set in place the beam on the 104th floor signed by President Obama and the First Lady.

Rather than plunging us into innocent love with an apparent stranger, they beam our conscious self-regard back at ourselves.

Here the gatekeeper thrust in the beam to hold the gate shut.

Back then, no one ever imagined needing to beam live video to ground troops from a fighter jet.