▪ I. beacon, n.
(ˈbiːkən)
Forms: 1 béacen, becen, becun, 2 bæcen, 4 bikene, bekne, 4–5 bekene, beeken, 5–6 beken, -yn, 6 bekin, beakon, 6– beacon, s.w. dial. bick'n.
[OE. béacn (neut.) = OFris. bácen, bę́cen, OS. bôkan, MDu. bôkin, -en, OHG. bouhhan, MHG. bouchen:—OTeut. *baukno(m). Not known outside of Teutonic.
(In this and the following words in bea- the occasional identity of the OE. and modern spellings is not due to continuity of form, the two being separated by a ME. spelling in e, ee, which prevailed for more than 3 centuries. Modern ea represents not merely OE. éa and ea, but also many other OE. and OF. vowels, as seen in bead, beadle, beak, bear, beast. See ea-.)]
† 1. A sign, a portent. Obs.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. John iv. 48 Buta beceno & soða uundra ᵹie ᵹesee, ne ᵹelefeð ᵹie. c 1000 Ags. G. ibid., Tacna & fore-beacna. c 1160 Hatton G., Tacne & fore-bæcne. |
† 2. An ensign, standard. Obs.
| a 1000 Beowulf 5547 Segn éac ᵹenom, béacna beorhtost. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 471 Religioun shal be shewid in sensible signes, as habitis, and bikenes, & hye housis. 1483 Cath. Angl. 26/1 A Bekyn or a standard, statela. |
3. A signal; spec. a signal-fire. a. A burning cresset raised on a pole, or fixed at the top of a building.
[Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 64 says he finds it ordained about the eleventh year of Edward III that beacons ‘should be high standards with their pitchpots.’]
| a 1859 Macaulay Armada, The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgcombe's lofty hall. c 1870 Thorne Environs of Lond. 266 From it [the tower of Monken Hadley Church] projects the ancient iron beacon, one of the last of its kind left. |
b. A fire, of wood, pitch, or other material, lighted on an eminence and serving as a signal (of danger, etc.); by a chain of beacons at convenient distances apart, tidings could be rapidly spread over a wide area.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 262 Ȝe brenne, but ȝe blaseth nouȝte, þat is a blynde bekene. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccvi. 188 That men shold tende the bekenes that the countrey myght be warned. 1533 Bellenden Livy 348 (Jam.) He tuke thare tentis..and incontinent made ane bekin of reik. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis i. i. 9 Publike trees..which being kindled by the King's command, give notice to the people..and these they call Beacons. 1815 Scott Ld. of Isles iv. viii, Signal of Ronald's high command, A beacon gleam'd o'er sea and land. |
c. = Belisha beacon.
4. Hence gen. A signal station, watch-tower.
| 1611 Bible Gen. xxxi. 49 Therefore was the name of it called..Mizpah [marg. that is a beacon or watchtower]. 1772 Pennant Tours Scotl. 104 On the eminencies beacons were established, for alarming the country. 1846 Prescott Ferd. & Is. II. xviii. 165 Ascertained by the erection of beacons at suitable distances. |
5. a. A conspicuous hill commanding a good view of the surrounding country, on which beacons were (or might be) lighted. Still applied to such hills in various parts of England; e.g. Brecon Beacons near Abergavenny, Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, Culmstock Beacon, Cothelstone Beacon, etc. (On some of these the beacon towers still exist.)
| 1597 T. Beard Theat. Gods Judgm. 58 He lies upon a beacons side With watchfull eie to circumscribe their traine. 1882 Athenæum 26 Aug. 265/3 Nothing can bring up the image of chalk country like the words combe, dean, beacon. |
† b. A division of a wapentake; probably a district throughout which a beacon could be seen, or which was bound to furnish one. Obs.
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 90 There is in everie weapontacke soe many severall divisions or beacons..there is in the weapontacke of Harthill fower beacons, Bainton beacon, Hunsley beacon, etc. |
6. a. A lighthouse or other conspicuous object placed upon the coast or at sea, to warn vessels of danger or direct their course.
| [a 1000 Beowulf 6301 Hlǽw on hliðe, wǽᵹ-liðendum wide tó-s{yacu}ne..beadu-rófes béacn.] 1397 Act 21 Rich. III, xviii. §1 Les Beekenes devant la port Moeqes. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 240 b, The beken lyghted in y⊇ nyght, directeth the maryner..to y⊇ port entended. 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1911/4 In the place of the Shore Beacon, there is at present a white Buoy laid. 1837 Hawthorne Amer. Note Bks. (1871) I. 97 A ledge of rocks, with a beacon upon it. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xvii, My blessing..Is on the waters day and night, And like a beacon guards thee home. |
b. fig.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 16 Modest Doubt is cal'd The Beacon of the wise. 1773 Ld. Monboddo Lang. (1774) I. Introd. 3 My errors may be of use, by serving as beacons to direct into the right course men of greater learning. 1840 Carlyle Heroes ii. 82 Great brother-souls, flame-beacons through so many lands and times. |
c. Aeronaut. A light placed at or in the vicinity of an aerodrome for the guidance of pilots; also attrib.
| 1918 [see aerial lighthouse s.v. aerial 5]. 1927 V. W. Pagé Mod. Aircraft (1928) xvii. 700 These beacons are usually mounted on towers of sufficient height so that they will be above obstacles which might obstruct the beam. 1930 Aircraft Engin. II. 211 Night Beacons for Night Flying. 1957 Encycl. Brit. I. 228/2 Beacon lights, which mark major airways and airports..consist of a searchlight which throws a beam of white light elevated several degrees above the horizontal. |
d. A radio transmitter enabling pilots to fix their position or the aerodrome staff to locate, identify, or guide aircraft; also marker beacon, radio beacon, and attrib.
| 1919 Pop. Sci. Monthly Oct. 49/2 What is a radio beacon? 1922 Radio-beacon [see radiophare]. 1929 Techn. News Bull., Bureau of Standards Nov. 108 The Bureau has found it necessary to give..attention to marker beacons, for two purposes. One is the adaptation of the marker beacon principle for use..on the airways in connection with the visual beacon system. Another is the provision of marker beacons as auxiliaries..with fog-landing equipment. 1932 F. E. Terman Radio Engineering xvi. 593 The instant when the received beacon signal goes through zero. 1937 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. July 591 An analysis of the flight of an aeroplane, when directed by means of a radio beacon. 1962 Times 21 Feb. 10/2 Direct communication with the capsule was briefly lost as it reentered the atmosphere because of an ionization process, but beacon signals were received. |
7. Comb., chiefly attrib., as beacon-bell, beacon-blaze, beacon-grate, beacon-place, beacon-turret, beacon-vessel; also beacon-wise adv.
| 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xix. 154 Out of the beakon place of the Crosse. 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. 6/1 He gaue knowledge thereof to his wife, in raising a fire on heigth beaconwise. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles i. xxii, By that blithe beacon-light they steer'd. 1820 ― Monast. xviii, The glow-worm, which makes a goodly show among the grass of the field, would be of little avail if deposited in a beacon-grate. 1862 Mrs. Norton Lady La G. Ded. 30 A voice whose sound Came like a beacon-bell, heard clear above The whirl of violent waters. |
▸ beacon school n. a school with an exceptionally good record and reputation, to which others look as an example; (spec. in the U.K.) one of a number of such schools which, since 1998, have been granted extra government funding in return for advising other schools on their methods.
| 1981 R. A. Dentler & M. B. Scott Schools on Trial iv. 100 The *beacon schools concept..was a warmed-over version of a part of Coakley's 1975 plan that had been rejected by the masters and entailed proliferating magnet schools within the eight community districts. 1986 Washington Post 15 Feb. a26/1 School systems throughout the country are now learning to look carefully at these exceptional schools and develop ways to replicate their methods more widely. In Cleveland, one of these beacon schools is Forest Hill Parkway Elementary. 1998 Evening Post (Bristol) (Electronic ed.) 30 Apr. Some of the country's most successful schools are to take a more active role in raising education standards, school standards minister Stephen Byers announced today. He unveiled a {pstlg}1.8 million programme to create a network of 100 ‘beacon schools’. 2002 Clevedon (Somerset) Mercury (Electronic ed.) 19 June This week 166 new beacon schools took the total in the UK to 1,150. Each one gets about {pstlg}36,000 to pay for work with other schools, sharing knowledge and practices. |
▪ II. beacon, v.
(ˈbiːkən)
[f. prec. n.]
† 1. trans. to beacon up: to raise or kindle as a beacon. Obs.
| 1644 Milton Areop. Wks. 1738 I. 156 We have lookt so long upon the blaze that Zuinglius and Calvin have beacon'd up to us. 1651 Biggs New Disp. Pref. 13 A greater light in Physick then what Galen has beaconed up to us. |
2. To light up, as a beacon-fire does.
| 1803 Campbell Lochiel's Warn. (1846) 94 'Tis the fireshower of ruin..that beacons the darkness of Heaven. 1813 Scott Rokeby v. xxxvii, Where far the mansion of her sires Beaconed the dale with midnight fires. |
b. fig. To give light and guidance to; to lead.
| 1835 Browning Paracelsus Wks. I. 37 Some one truth would dimly beacon me..Into assured light. 1856 R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 11 Whose far glories beacon him..as he rises step by step. |
3. To furnish with beacons; to mark the position of, by beacons or a beacon. Occas. with off, out.
| 1821 Shelley Epipsych. 148 My wisdom..bids me dare Beacon the rocks on which high hearts are wreckt. 1860 Merc. Mar. Mag. VII. 174 The..Channel..is as good as buoyed and beaconed by the..Rock and..Reefs. 1883 Daily News 12 June 5/2 The Boers have beaconed out a boundary. 1883 Pall Mall G. 16 Nov. 2/1 The boundary has never been beaconed off. |
4. intr. To shine like a beacon.
| 1821 Shelley Adonais lv, The soul of Adonais, like a star, Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. 1864 N. & Q. V. 210 Arcturus beaconed from his zenith tower to Cepheus. |