abeam

[ uh-beem ]

adverb

1. Nautical, Aeronautics. at right angles to the fore-and-aft line:

   The vessel was sailing with the wind directly abeam.

2. directly abreast the middle of a ship's side.

abeam

/ əˈbiːm /

adverb

1. postpositive at right angles to the length and directly opposite the centre of a vessel or aircraft

Word History and Origins

Origin of abeam¹

First recorded in 1830–40; a- ¹ + beam

Word History and Origins

Origin of abeam¹

C19: a- ² + beam

Example Sentences

England and the Kingdom, Britain and the Empire, the old prides and the old devotions, glide abeam, astern, sink down upon the horizon, pass - pass.

From Literature

Nothing came back at us from the island, but our ship’s gunners still sprayed it with bursts of twenty-millimeter fire as we passed abeam.

From Literature

But when, last Sunday, the rain came, and a vessel carrying the London Philharmonic Orchestra with a drenched choir perched on top came abeam the queen’s moored royal barge near Tower Bridge, that changed.

From New York Times

With the wind abeam on the port side the "Golden Hind" opened out to one hundred and forty miles an hour.

From Project Gutenberg

Caught in the blinding glare, her crew could be seen hard at work endeavouring to turn a pair of torpedo-tubes abeam--a task of considerable difficulty owing to the "racer" being damaged.

From Project Gutenberg