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of a window, etc.; one of the main divisions of any structure, as the part of a bridge between two piers.

a hawk; -- called also beam feather. Abaft the beam (Naut.), in an arc of the horizon between a line that crosses the ship at right angles, or in the direction of her beams, and that point of the compass toward which her stern is directed. -- Beam center (Mach.), the fulcrum or pin on which the working beam of an eng…

und on bean flowers. -- Bean goose (Zoöl.), a species of goose (Anser segetum). -- Bean weevil (Zoöl.), a small weevil that in the larval state destroys beans. The American species in Bruchus fabæ. -- Florida bean (Bot.), the seed of Mucuna urens, a West Indian plant. The seeds are washed up on the Florida shore, an…

The bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis).

That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.

Improperly, the unsupported span; as, the beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

To make swollen and disfigured or sullied by weeping; as, her eyes or cheeks were beblubbered.

A division of the Bantus, dwelling between the Orange and Zambezi rivers, supposed to be the most ancient Bantu population of South Africa. They are divided into totemic clans; they are intelligent and progressive.

A layer or seam, or a horizontal stratum between layers; as, a bed of coal, iron, etc.

chamber, eight officers of the royal household, all of noble families, who wait in turn a week each. [Eng.] -- Ladies of the bedchamber, eight ladies, all titled, holding a similar official position in the royal household, during the reign of a queen. [Eng.]

A gall produced on rosebushes, esp. on the sweetbrier or eglantine, by a puncture from the ovipositor of a gallfly (Rhodites rosæ). It was once supposed to have medicinal properties.

as distinguished from a thing without life; as, a human being; spiritual beings. What a sweet being is an honest mind ! Beau. & Fl. A Being of infinite benevolence and power. Wordsworth.

A sweet or loving look. [Obs.] Spenser.

Of or pertaining to the Belgæ, a German tribe who anciently possessed the country between the Rhine, the Seine, and the ocean. How unlike their Belgic sires of old. Goldsmith.

That part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck molding; also used for the naked core of nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.

c aldehyde, oil of bitter almonds; the aldehyde, C6H5.CHO, intermediate in composition between benzoic or benzyl alcohol, and benzoic acid. It is a thin colorless liquid.

A controversy (1886 --93) between Great Britain and the United States as to the right of Canadians not licensed by the United States to carry on seal fishing in the Bering Sea, over which the United States claimed jurisdiction as a mare clausum. A court of arbitration, meeting in Paris in 1893, decided against the clai…

A narrow shelf or path between the bottom of a parapet and the ditch.

of azure beset with drops of gold. Spectator. The garden is so beset with all manner of sweet shrubs that it perfumes the air. Evelyn.

A brush of twigs for sweeping; a broom; anything which sweeps away or destroys. [Archaic or Fig.] I will sweep it with the besom of destruction. Isa. xiv. 23. The housemaid with her besom. W. Irving.