Wiktionary
n. (context nautical English) The ends of the transverse beams of a ship.
WordNet
n. (nautical) at the ends of the transverse deck beams of a vessel; "on her beam-ends" means heeled over on the side so that the deck is almost vertical
Usage examples of "beam-ends".
She had already been bilged in the midships, and with her starboard bow forced by the waves against the reef – the largest and most dangerous reef along the entire coast of Kent – it was only a matter of seconds before she shipped a dozen tons of water through her hull and then heeled clumsily on to her beam-ends.
In the estate of Duke Danius, the Mouser spied through the spiked wall and now by brighter moonlight—the air there being cleansed of night-smog by the gentle north seawind—a snug, trim, well-polished, natural wooden garden house with curvingly horned ridgepole and beam-ends, to which abode he took a sudden extreme fancy and which he even persuaded Fafhrd to admire.
In the estate of Duke Danius, the Mouser spied through the spiked wall and now by brighter moonlight -- the air there being cleansed of night-smog by the gentle north seawind -- a snug, trim, well-polished, natural wooden garden house with curvingly horned ridgepole and beam-ends, to which abode he took a sudden extreme fancy and which he even persuaded Fafhrd to admire.
In the estate of Duke Danius, the Mouser spied through the spiked wall and now by brighter moonlight - the air there being cleansed of night smog by the gentle north seawind - a snug, trim, well-polished, natural wooden garden house with curvingly horned ridgepole and beam-ends, to which abode he took a sudden extreme fancy and which he even persuaded Fafhrd to admire.
The ship brought by the lee at night, for example, or laid on her beam-ends in a squall, or closely engaged with a determined enemy, spars, blocks and even masts falling about their ears.
And main and mizen topmasts and foretopgallant, all over to leeward, and there we were on our beam-ends, all ports open and three guns breaking loose.