Noun

(en noun)

Someone who threads something; one who makes or provides strings, especially for bows.

* Ascham

Be content to put your trust in honest stringers .

Someone who leads someone along.

A horizontal timber that supports upright posts, or supports the hull of a vessel

A freelance correspondent not on the regular newspaper staff, especially one retained on a part-time basis to report on events in a particular place.

(surfing) Wooden strip running lengthwise down the centre of a surfboard, for strength.

Line up the 1/2 template with the stringer (or draw a center line) — Stephen Pirsch [http://www.surfersteve.com/shaping.htm]

A hard-hit ball.

(fishing) A cord or chain, sometimes with additional loops, that is threaded through the mouth and gills of caught fish.

Janice pulled the bluegill out of the water and added it to her stringer .

A pallet or skid used when shipping LTL [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-Than-Truckload_(LTL)_Shipping] freight. A platform typically constructed of timber or plastic designed such that freight may be stacked on top, able to be lifted by a forklift.

(obsolete) A libertine; a wencher.

(Beaumont and Fletcher)

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.