beam-ends
Americanplural noun
idioms
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on her beam-ends, heeled so far on one side that the deck is practically vertical.
The schooner was blown over on her beam-ends.
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on one's / the beam-ends, in desperate straits, especially financial straits. Also on the beam's ends.
plural noun
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the ends of a vessel's beams
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(of a vessel) heeled over through an angle of 90°
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out of resources; destitute
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desperate
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Etymology
Origin of beam-ends
First recorded in 1765–75
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the ruinous days of September 1940, a bomb blasted two of the museum's rooms into reportedly picturesque and possibly symbolic confusion: Hitler lurched on his beam-ends, his head chipped to its core.
From Time Magazine Archive
If we head back for the land we may be thrown on our beam-ends, I will say.
From The Campfire Girls on Station Island or, The Wireless from the Steam Yacht by Penrose, Margaret
On May 14th the Hecla reached Hakluyt’s Headland, where a severe gale was encountered, which almost laid the ship on her beam-ends, and her canvas had to be reduced to her maintop-sail and storm-sails.
From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 3 by Whymper, Frederick
But the Dart was already lying on her beam-ends, heaving, groaning and quivering throughout every timber, in the fierce embrace of the tremendous blast!
From The Portland Sketch Book by Various
It was very dark, Jimmy could not see the hatch, and the Cetacea appeared to have fallen over on her beam-ends.
From The Secret of the Reef by Bindloss, Harold
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
