rostrum

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

• noun A dais, pulpit, or other elevated platform for public speaking.
• noun The curved, beaklike prow of an ancient Roman ship, especially a war galley.
• noun The speaker's platform in an ancient Roman forum, which was decorated with the prows of captured enemy ships.
• noun Biology A beaklike projection, especially.
• noun An anterior projection of an insect's or an arachnid's mouthparts, of the upper jaw of a cetacean, or of the cephalothorax of a crustacean.
• noun A beaklike projection of a plant part, as the fruit of a geranium.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The beak or bill of a bird.
• noun The snout, muzzle, or sometimes the face of an animal, especially when protrusive.
• noun In anatomy and zoology, any beaked or rostrate part, or part likened to a beak.
• noun The beak of a ship: an ancient form of ram, consisting of a beam to which were attached heavy pointed irons, fixed to the bows, sometimes just above and sometimes below the water-line, and used for the purpose of sinking other vessels. See cut under rostral.
• noun plural A platform or elevated place in the Roman forum, whence orations, pleadings, funeral harangues, etc., were delivered: so called because it was adorned with the rostra or beaks of the ships taken in the first naval victory gained by the republic.
• noun Hence A pulpit or any platform or elevated spot from which a speaker addresses his audience. See cut under pulpit.
• noun In botany, an elongated receptacle with the styles adhering: also applied generally to any rigid process of remarkable length, or to any additional process at the end of any of the parts of a plant.
• noun A trestle used in supporting platforms in a theater.
• noun In an ancient lamp, the beak or projection in which the wick lies.
• noun In distilling, that part of the still which connects the head with the worm and forms a passage for vapor from the head to the worm; the beak.

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

• noun The beak or head of a ship.
• noun (Rom. Antiq.) The Beaks; the stage or platform in the forum where orations, pleadings, funeral harangues, etc., were delivered; -- so called because after the Latin war, it was adorned with the beaks of captured vessels; later, applied also to other platforms erected in Rome for the use of public orators.
• noun Hence, a stage for public speaking; the pulpit or platform occupied by an orator or public speaker.
• noun Any beaklike prolongation, esp. of the head of an animal, as the beak of birds.
• noun The beak, or sucking mouth parts, of Hemiptera.
• noun The snout of a gastropod mollusk. See Illust. of Littorina.
• noun The anterior, often spinelike, prolongation of the carapace of a crustacean, as in the lobster and the prawn.
• noun (Bot.) Same as Rostellum.
• noun (Old Chem.) The pipe to convey the distilling liquor into its receiver in the common alembic.
• noun (Surg.), obsolete A pair of forceps of various kinds, having a beaklike form.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A dais, pulpit, or similar platform for a speaker, conductor or other performer.
• noun A platform for a film or television camera.
• noun The projecting prow of a rowed warship, such as a trireme.
• noun zoology The beak shaped projection on the head of insects such as weevils.
• noun The snout of a dolphin

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun beaklike projection of the anterior part of the head of certain insects such as e.g. weevils
• noun a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it