beam-ends

noun

beam-ends

noun
1

Nautical, Transport The ends of the transverse beams of a ship.

  • The ship is lying over half upon her beam-ends; lee scuppers under water, and forecastle all in a smother of foam.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:
  • It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
Related terms
on one's beam ends

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.