Search results for 'beam':

beam noun 1 a long straight thick piece of wood, used eg as a main structural component in a building. 2 a ray or shaft of light • the beam of a torch. 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) 1 intrans to smile broadly with pleasure. 2 intrans (often beam down or out) to shine. 3 to send out or transmit (eg rays of light, radio waves, etc). beaming adj, noun. beam me up, Scotty humorous get me out of this (dangerous, awkward, embarrassing, etc) situation, quickly!
ETYMOLOGY: 20c: a phrase used in the TV science-fiction series Star Trek, as an instruction to the chief engineer of the 'starship' to activate a 'beam' which can instantly transfer the speaker from a planet's surface or another spaceship, etc back to the ship. broad in the beam see under broad. off beam colloq wrong; misguided. on the beam colloq on the right track. on one's beam ends Brit colloq having only a very small amount of money or resources left; dangerously close to ruin or destitution
ETYMOLOGY: 19c, from nautical use: in severe gale conditions a sailing ship would be laid right over on her side, where the transverse timbers (ie the beams) end. on the port or starboard beam naut on the left or right side of a ship.
ETYMOLOGY: Anglo-Saxon, meaning 'tree'.