Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb At right angles to the keel of a ship.
- preposition Alongside or at right angles to.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Nautical, in or into a direction at right angles to the keel of a ship; directly opposite the middle part of a ship's side, and in line with its main-beam: as, we had the wind abeam.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb (Naut.) On the beam, that is, on a line which forms a right angle with the ship's keel; opposite to the center of the ship's side.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb at right angles to the length of a ship or airplane
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Sailboats move fastest with the wind coming from "abeam" or the side.
Fore, right! < 2010
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Sailboats move fastest with the wind coming from "abeam" or the side.
Fore, right! Scott LaFee and Shaffer Grubb, STAFF WRITER/NEWS A 2010
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Sailboats move fastest with the wind coming from "abeam" or the side.
Fore, right! Scott LaFee 2010
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Sailboats move fastest with the wind coming from "abeam" or the side.
Fore, right! 2010
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Fakarava, and we'll go in through the passage full-tilt, the wind abeam, and every sail drawing.
THE SEED OF McCOY 2010
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We were already under way, all sails set and drawing, and the sheets being slacked off for a wind abeam, as the last boat lifted clear of the water and swung in the tackles.
Chapter 25 2010
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In the course of half an hour she worked off till the wind was directly abeam.
CHAPTER XLIII 2010
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It was merely a stiff breeze, and the Uncle Toby, filling away under her storm canvas till the wind was abeam, sloshed along at a four-knot gait.
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Then, when she had paid off till the wind was abeam, by reversing the wheel hard across to the opposite hard-over I could take advantage of her momentum away from the wind and work her off squarely before it.
CHAPTER XLVII 2010
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The wind being abeam, was what had saved the men crowded aft.
THE SEED OF McCOY 2010
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