on the beam Definition

beam
noun

1. A long straight thick piece of wood, used eg as a main structural component in a building.

Thesaurus: plank, two-by-four, rafter, timber, brace, stud, strut, stay, crosspiece, support, trestle, spar, stanchion, joist.
2. A ray or shaft of light.

Example: the beam of a torch
Thesaurus: streak, shaft, flicker, gleam, glare, glint, glow, emission.
3. A broad radiant smile.
4. The widest part of a ship or boat.
5. One of the transverse timbers extending across the hull of a ship.
6. A raised narrow horizontal wooden bar on which gymnasts perform balancing exercises.
7. physics.
A directed flow of electromagnetic radiation (eg radio or X-rays) or of particles (eg atoms or electrons).
8. The part of a set of scales from which the weighing-pans hang.
9. weaving.
Either of the two wooden or metal cylinders in a loom.
10. The main shaft of a deer's antler, or of a plough, anchor, etc.

verb beamed, beaming

intr
1. To smile broadly with pleasure.

Thesaurus: smile, grin, laugh, smirk, glow, radiate.
intr
2. To shine.

Thesaurus: shine, radiate, glitter, glimmer, glare, effulge.
Form: beam down (often)
Form: beam out
3. To send out or transmit (eg rays of light, radio waves, etc).

Thesaurus: send, emit, transmit, broadcast.

Derivative: beaming
adj, noun

Idiom: beam me up, Scotty

humorous
Get me out of this (dangerous, awkward, embarrassing, etc) situation, quickly!

Idiom: broad in the beam

See under broad.

Idiom: off beam

colloq
Wrong; misguided.

Idiom: on the beam

colloq
On the right track.

Idiom: on one's beam ends

(rit)
colloq
Having only a very small amount of money or resources left; dangerously close to ruin or destitution

Idiom: on the port beam (on the starboard beam)

On the left or right side of a ship.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon, meaning ‘tree'.