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Glite Dictionary
📡 To send signals ☀️ To shine brightly
to beam down

to beam down

1 4.1
Light that shines down from above, often from the sun
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : iluminar
  • Like a bird trying to fly, Lori raised her grimy hands toward the high window where a shaft of light beamed down into the little room behind the organ.
  • light beamed down
  • sun beamed down

Examples

  • And the sun is beaming down on the snow, which residents said they hoped would quickly disappear.

    Blog text (21)

  • She led the way for half an hour, and they had beamed down the same passage three times before she found the gravator.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The sun beamed down on us, like on us.

  • Like, I was just looking at the sun just, like beaming down on me and the beautiful downtown Los Angeles streets.

  • The August sun had been beaming down all day on the mansion in Augsburg.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Bright light beaming down where the boxing bag was hanging gives a sense that the bag was knocked off the clamp.

    Academic text (2014)

  • My tweet with this photograph read, "Bright light beaming down where the bag was hanging gives a sense that the bag was knocked off the clamp."

    Academic text (2014)

  • The warm September sun beamed down on her as soon as she stepped onto the sidewalk, and she drew a deep sigh of pleasure at the heat.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • We couldn't find much to talk about and sat in the TV room watching Star Trek. The crew had beamed down to a planet where everyone's dreams came true, and all it did was cause them trouble.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • The sun beamed down on the beach, warming the sand beneath our toes.

Synonyms

to shine
vsto beam down
114 1.0

To point a light at something so you can see it

focuses on bright shining from above rather than general directing
to gleam
vsto beam down
70 1.9

To shine softly, often on a smooth or wet surface

is brighter, direct shining from above rather than soft reflection
to light up
vsto beam down
64 2.5

Begin to shine or make something begin to shine, for example by burning

refers to bright shining from above not general brightening
to illuminate
vsto beam down
52 4.1

To make something bright or visible with light

emphasizes bright top-down shining more than general visibility
to flare
vsto beam down
18 4.2

To burn or shine with a sudden bright light

describes steady bright light from above rather than sudden unsteady bursts
to beam
vsto beam down
6 3.0

To shine brightly and send light in a certain direction

shines specifically from above rather than any direction
to glare
vsto beam down
4 3.3

To shine with a bright, harsh light that hurts your eyes

is about bright light coming from above rather than harshness
to irradiate
vsto beam down
1 7.8

To shine light on something to make it visible

means shining from above especially, not just any light casting
to floodlight
vsto beam down
3.8

To light a large area with very bright lights, for example at a stadium

describes bright light from above, not only artificial wide-area lighting

Antonyms

to darken
63 3.3

Make or become less bright, for example a room

How Brightly

to dazzle
6 4.1
to beam down
1 4.1
to gleam
70 1.9

Surface Forms

beam down infinitive
beamed down past
beamed down past participle
beaming down present participle
beams down third person singular

Morphology

beam + down

The verb 'beam' (to shine/send out) combined with 'down' (toward a lower level) directly suggests sending or shining something downward, so a learner who knows both words can infer a sense of transmitting downward. However, the specific technical sense of broadcasting data/signals (rather than literal light) is a metaphorical extension and may not be fully predictable without prior exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Beam down comes from the image of a bright line of light—a beam—falling down from the sun to the ground, so it means 'shine brightly from above'.