beam

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A squared-off log or a large, oblong piece of timber, metal, or stone used especially as a horizontal support in construction.
• noun A transverse structural member of a ship's frame, used to support a deck and to brace the sides against stress.
• noun The breadth of a ship at the widest point.
• noun The side of a ship.
• noun Informal The widest part of a person's hips.
• noun A steel tube or wooden roller on which the warp is wound in a loom.
• noun An oscillating lever connected to an engine piston rod and used to transmit power to the crankshaft.
• noun The bar of a balance from which weighing pans are suspended.
• noun Sports A balance beam.
• noun The main horizontal bar on a plow to which the share, colter, and handles are attached.
• noun One of the main stems of a deer's antlers.
• noun A ray or shaft of light.
• noun A concentrated stream of particles or a similar propagation of waves.
• noun A radio beam.
• intransitive verb To radiate light; shine.
• intransitive verb To smile expansively.
• intransitive verb To emit or transmit.
• intransitive verb To express by means of a radiant smile.
• idiom (on the beam) Following a radio beam. Used of aircraft.
• idiom (on the beam) On the right track; operating correctly.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To shed rays of light upon; irradiate.
• To shoot forth or emit, as or like beams or rays: as, to beam love upon a person.
• To furnish or supply with beams; give the appearance of beams to.
• In currying, to stretch on the beam, as a hide.
• In weaving, to put on the beam, as a chain or web.
• To emit beams or rays of light; shed or give out radiance, literally or figuratively; shine.
• noun In lace-manuf., a tin drum of small diameter, varying in length with the width of the machine, upon which the yarn is wound.
• noun In currying, an inclined table or stand on which the skin is placed while it is beamed or scraped.
• To burnish, as morocco leather, with a beaming-machine; also, in currying, to flesh or shave on the flesh side.
• noun In architecture, a long piece of stone, wood, or metal, or a construction of wood or metal, or combining wood and metal, used in a horizontal position, usually in combination with others like it, all being generally laid parallel to one another, and at regular intervals, to support weight, or, as a tie-beam or a collar-beam, to resist two opposite forces either pulling or compressing it in the direction of its length.
• noun A long piece fixed or movable in a structure, machine, or tool: often equivalent to girder.
• noun The pole of a carriage which runs between the horses.
• noun A cylindrical piece of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving; also, the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled as it is woven.
• noun The straight part or shank of an anchor.
• noun One of the strong transverse pieces of timber or iron stretching across a ship from one side to the other, to support the decks and retain the sides at their proper distance.
• noun The main piece of a plow, in which the plow-tails are fixed, and by which it is drawn.
• noun The oscillating lever of a steam-engine reciprocating upon a center, and forming the medium of communication between the piston-rod and the crank-shaft. Also called working-beam or walking-beam. See cut under atmospheric.
• noun The widest part of a ship's hull; the extreme breadth of a ship: from the beams extending quite across the vessel where it is broadest: as, a steamer of fifty feet beam.
• noun The main stem of a deer's horns bearing the snags or antlers. One of the snags themselves is sometimes called the beam-antler. See antler.
• noun A ray of light, or more strictly a collection of parallel rays of light, emitted from the sun or other luminous body.
• noun Figuratively, a ray or emanation of splendor: as, “beams of majesty,”
• noun Same as rood-beam.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To send forth; to emit; -- followed ordinarily by forth.
• intransitive verb To emit beams of light.
• noun Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
• noun One of the principal horizontal timbers of a building or ship.
• noun The width of a vessel.