[CROSS- 4.] A beam placed across some part of a structure or mechanism; a transverse beam.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 96. They want neither the bellowes, nor the crosse-beame, nor the cordes … nor the organ pipes.
1611. Cotgr., Traversin, A crosse-beame, or peece of timber, in a ship, &c.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Cross-piece or Cross-beam, a Beam laid a-cross another: In a Ship, it is a great piece of Timber that goes a-cross two other pieces call’d Bitts, and to which the Cable is fasten’d when the Ship rides at Anchor.
1825. Wood, Railroads, 146. The piston rods … are attached to the cross-beams [in Stephenson’s Killingworth locomotive].
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xxxi. The old oak roof supported by cross-beams.
