beam-ends

English

Noun

beam-ends pl (plural only)

1. (nautical) The ends of the transverse beams of a ship.
   • 1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC:

     The ship is lying over half upon her beam-ends; lee scuppers under water, and forecastle all in a smother of foam.

   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends.

Usage notes

• A ship is on her beam-ends when she has heeled over such that the beams are vertical and she cannot be brought back to an upright position.

See also

• on one's beam ends

Anagrams

• beadsmen, bedesman