[f. BEAM v.]
1. Emission of beams of light, radiation, radiance.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xxviii. (1495), 339. Lyghte is a substaunce beyng in itselfe, and therof comyth bemynge … of other bodyes.
1660. W. Secker, Nonsuch Prof., 14. You do not look for so much splendor from the burnings of a candle as from the beamings of the Sun.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, II. 36. Whilst suns their mingling beamings darted.
2. The use of a beam: a. for shoring up or supporting; b. in Tanning (see quot. 1885), whence attrib., as in beaming-knife. c. The rolling of warp, etc., on a beam. Also attrib.
1530. Palsgr., 197/2. Beamyng knyfe for a tanner.
1538. Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 398. Here is much beaming and bolstering, and malefactors do not lack their supporters.
1831. G. Porter, Silk Manuf., 220. To roll regularly on the beam … the different portions of warp threads … is called beaming.
1879. Temple Bar, LV. 453. If you go to the beaming-room.
1885. H. M. Newhall in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 274/2. ‘Beaming,’ or unhairing, derives its name from an inclined convex wooden form called a ‘beam,’ on which the hide is spread during the operation.
