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flaming or blazing unsteadily; shining out with a dazzling light. His [the sun's] flaring beams. Milton.

level tract along the along the banks of a river; as, the Mohawk Flats. Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat. Bacon.

To shed forth; to emit; to scatter. The sun begins to fling His flaring beams. Milton. Every beam new transient colors flings. Pope.

or iron plates, which are secured together, side by side, to make a large girder or built beam.

The structure formed of beams, girders, etc., with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into stories. Floor in sense 1 is, then, the upper surface of floor in sense 2.

t (Naut.), a sheet when eased off, or loosened to the wind, as when the wind is abaft the beam. Totten.

ay a fee on first doing anything, as working at a trade or in a shop. Wright. -- Footing beam, the tie beam of a roof.

The gibbet. [Obs.] Bp. Butler. Fork beam (Shipbuilding), a half beam to support a deck, where hatchways occur. -- Fork chuck (Wood Turning), a lathe center having two prongs for driving the work. -- Fork head. (a) The barbed head of an arrow. (b) The forked end of a rod which forms part of a knuckle joint. -- In for…

beveled notch cut out of a girder, binding joist, or other timber which supports a floor beam, so as to receive the end of the floor beam.

ich criminals are executed by hanging, usually consisting of two upright posts and a crossbeam on the top; also, a like frame for suspending anything. So they hanged Haman on the gallows. Esther vii. 10. If I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows. Shak. O, there were desolation of gaolers and gallowses Shak.…

ment of saws which cuts slabs from two sides of a log, leaving the middle part as a thick beam.

dings, etc., by means of a templet. -- Gauge wheel, a wheel at the forward end of a plow beam, to determine the depth of the furrow. -- Joiner's gauge, an instrument used to strike a line parallel to the straight side of a board, etc. -- Printer's gauge, an instrument to regulate the length of the page. -- Rain gau…

A main beam; a stright, horizontal beam to span an opening or carry weight, such as ends of floor beams, etc.; hence, a framed or built-up member discharging the same office, technically called a compound girder. See Illusts. of Frame, and Doubleframed floor, under Double. Bowstring girder, Box girder, etc. See under B…

A shoot of light; a small stream of light; a beam; a ray; a glimpse. Transient unexpected gleams of joi. Addison. At last a gleam Of dawning light turned thitherward in haste His [Satan's] traveled steps. Milton. A glimmer, and then a gleam of light. Longfellow.

Darting beams of light; casting light in rays; flashing; coruscating. In brazed arms, that cast a gleamy ray, Swift through the town the warrior bends his way. Pope.

ey; -- called also the hopper. Grove. Grasshopper engine, a steam engine having a working beam with its fulcrum at one end, the steam cylinder at the other end, and the connecting rod at an intermediate point. -- Grasshopper lobster (Zoöl.) a young lobster. [Local, U. S.] -- Grasshopper warbler (Zoöl.), cricket bird.…

A framework of sleepers and crossbeams forming a foundation in marshy or treacherous soil.

An instrument consisting of a mirror moved by clockwork, by which a sunbeam is made apparently stationary, by being steadily directed to one spot during the whole of its diurnal period; also, a geodetic heliotrope.

A beam or bar armed with iron spikes, and turning on a pivot; - - used to block up a passage.

A beam with projecting spikes, used to make a breach impassable.