beam

beam

1. informal One's hips and buttocks; one's backside. Said especially of women. (A reference to the breadth of a ship at its widest point.) I've always been attracted to women who are fairly broad in the beam. She had a very pleasant face, though she was a bit narrow in the beam for my liking.

2. informal A small but steadfast amount or source (of something hopeful or positive). My lovely daughter has been a beam of joy in such a trying year of hardship. The charity is the sole beam of comfort to the many people displaced by war who have been reduced to such squalid conditions.

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

beam

verb

See I-beam

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.