kick the beam

English

Verb

kick the beam (third-person singular simple present kicks the beam, present participle kicking the beam, simple past and past participle kicked the beam)

1. (idiomatic, archaic) To rise up and strike the beam; said of the lighter arm of a loaded balance; hence, to be found lacking in weight, or of little importance.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1004-1005:

     The latter quick up flew, and kick'd the beam; / Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “kick the beam”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)