Noun

(en noun)

(lb) Anything that rolls.

#Any rotating cylindrical device that is part of a machine, especially one used to apply or reduce pressure.

#A person who rolls something, as in "cigar roller".

#(lb) A heavy rolling device used to flatten the surface of the pitch.

#A cylindrical tool for applying paint or ink.

#An agricultural machine used for flattening land and breaking up lumps of earth.

#One of a set of small cylindrical tubes used to curl hair.

#A roller towel.

#A small wheel, as of a caster, a roller skate, etc.

#Any insect whose larva rolls up leaves.

#Any of the small ground snakes of the family .

A long wide bandage used in surgery.

A large, wide, curling wave that falls back on itself as it breaks on a coast.

*

*:He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend?; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruised about in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits?; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous,.

(lb) A bird.

#A breed or variety of roller pigeon that rolls (i.e. tumbles or somersaults) backwards (compare Penson roller, Birmingham roller, tumbler, tumbler pigeon, English Short Faced Tumbler, English Long Faced Tumbler).

#Any of various aggressive birds, of the family Coraciidae, having bright blue wings and hooked beaks.

(also written Roller) A car made by Rolls-Royce.

The police (old blues slang).

A padded surcingle that is used on horses for training and vaulting.

A roll of titles or (especially) credits played over film or video; television or film credits.

*2006 , (Clive James), North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 69:

*:I learned a lot from watching, but the part that I should have studied harder was the roller . The names of the writers went on for ever.

Noun

(en noun)

Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.

One of the principal horizontal timbers of a building; one of the transverse members of a ship's frame on which the decks are laid - supported at the sides by knees in wooden ships and by stringers in steel ones.

(nautical) The maximum width of a vessel

This ship has more beam than that one.

The crossbar of a mechanical balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended.

*(rfdate) (Alexander Pope)

The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.

The principal stem of the antler of a deer.

(literary) The pole of a carriage.(rfc-sense)

*

(textiles) A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving and the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled, as it is woven.

The straight part or shank of an anchor.

The central bar of a plow, to which the handles and colter are secured, and to the end of which are attached the oxen or horses that draw it.

In steam engines, a heavy iron lever having an oscillating motion on a central axis, one end of which is connected with the piston rod from which it receives motion, and the other with the crank of the wheel shaft.

A ray or collection of approximatelyly parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body

a beam of light

a beam of energy

* (rfdate) Shakespeare

How far that little candle throws his beams !

* {{quote-news, year=2011

, date=September 22 , author=Nick Collins , title=Speed of light 'broken' by scientists , work=Daily Telegraph citation , page= , passage=A total of 15,000 beams of neutrinos were fired over a period of 3 years from CERN towards Gran Sassoin Italy, 730km (500 miles) away, where they were picked up by giant detectors. }}

(figuratively) A ray; a gleam

a beam of hope, or of comfort

* (rfdate) Keble

Mercy with her genial beam .

One of the long feathers in the wing of a hawk.

(music) A horizontal bar which connects the stems of two or more notes to group them and to indicate metric value.

An elevated rectangular dirt pile used to cheaply build an elevated portion of a railway.