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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.