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Beat

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beat

  [beet] verb, beat, beat⋅en or beat, beat⋅ing, noun, adjective
Use Beat in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to strike violently or forcefully and repeatedly.
2. to dash against: rain beating the trees.
3. to flutter, flap, or rotate in or against: beating the air with its wings.
4. to sound, as on a drum: beating a steady rhythm; to beat a tattoo.
5. to stir vigorously: Beat the egg whites well.
6. to break, forge, or make by blows: to beat their swords into plowshares.
7. to produce (an attitude, idea, habit, etc.) by repeated efforts: I'll beat some sense into him.
8. to make (a path) by repeated treading.
9. to strike (a person or animal) repeatedly and injuriously: Some of the hoodlums beat their victims viciously before robbing them.
10. Music. to mark (time) by strokes, as with the hand or a metronome.
11. Hunting. to scour (the forest, grass, or brush), and sometimes make noise, in order to rouse game.
12. to overcome in a contest; defeat.
13. to win over in a race: We beat the English challenger to Bermuda.
14. to be superior to: Making reservations beats waiting in line.
15. to be incomprehensible to; baffle: It beats me how he got the job.
16. to defeat or frustrate (a person), as a problem to be solved: It beats me how to get her to understand.
17. to mitigate or offset the effects of: beating the hot weather; trying to beat the sudden decrease in land values.
18. Slang. to swindle; cheat (often fol. by out): He beat him out of hundreds of dollars on that deal.
19. to escape or avoid (blame or punishment).
20. Textiles. to strike (the loose pick) into its proper place in the woven cloth by beating the loosely deposited filling yarn with the reed.
–verb (used without object)
21. to strike repeated blows; pound.
22. to throb or pulsate: His heart began to beat faster.
23. to dash; strike (usually fol. by against or on): rain beating against the windows.
24. to resound under blows, as a drum.
25. to achieve victory in a contest; win: Which team do you think will beat?
26. to play, as on a drum.
27. to scour cover for game.
28. Physics. to make a beat or beats.
29. (of a cooking ingredient) to foam or stiffen as a result of beating or whipping: This cream won't beat.
30. Nautical. to tack to windward by sailing close-hauled.
–noun
31. a stroke or blow.
32. the sound made by one or more such blows: the beat of drums.
33. a throb or pulsation: a pulse of 60 beats per minute.
34. the ticking sound made by a clock or watch escapement.
35. one's assigned or regular path or habitual round: a policeman's beat.
36. Music.
a. the audible, visual, or mental marking of the metrical divisions of music.
b. a stroke of the hand, baton, etc., marking the time division or an accent for music during performance.
37. Theater. a momentary time unit imagined by an actor in timing actions: Wait four beats and then pick up the phone.
38. Prosody. the accent stress, or ictus, in a foot or rhythmical unit of poetry.
39. Physics. a pulsation caused by the coincidence of the amplitudes of two oscillations of unequal frequencies, having a frequency equal to the difference between the frequencies of the two oscillations.
40. Journalism.
a. the reporting of a piece of news in advance, esp. before it is reported by a rival or rivals. Compare exclusive (def. 13), scoop (def. 8).
b. Also called newsbeat, run. the particular news source or activity that a reporter is responsible for covering.
41. a subdivision of a county, as in Mississippi.
42. (often initial capital letter) Informal. beatnik.
–adjective
43. Informal. exhausted; worn out.
44. (often initial capital letter) of or characteristic of members of the Beat Generation or beatniks.
—Verb phrases
45. beat about,
a. to search through; scour: After beating about for several hours, he turned up the missing papers.
b. Nautical. to tack into the wind.
46. beat back, to force back; compel to withdraw: to beat back an attacker.
47. beat down,
a. to bring into subjection; subdue.
b. Informal. to persuade (a seller) to lower the price of something: His first price was too high, so we tried to beat him down.
48. beat off,
a. to ward off; repulse: We had to beat off clouds of mosquitoes.
b. Slang: Vulgar. to masturbate.
49. beat out,
a. Informal. to defeat; win or be chosen over: to beat out the competition.
b. Carpentry. to cut (a mortise).
c. to produce hurriedly, esp. by writing or typing: There are three days left to beat out the first draft of the novel.
d. Baseball. (of a hitter) to make (an infield ground ball or bunt) into a hit: He beat out a weak grounder to third.
50. beat up,
a. Also, beat up on. to strike repeatedly so as to cause painful injury; thrash: A gang of toughs beat him up on the way home from school. In the third round the champion really began to beat up on the challenger.
b. British Informal. to find or gather; scare up: I'll beat up some lunch for us while you make out the shopping list.
—Idioms
51. beat all, Informal. to surpass anything of a similar nature, esp. in an astonishing or outrageous way: The way he came in here and ordered us around beats all!
52. beat a retreat. retreat (def. 12).
53. beat around or about the bush. bush 1 (def. 17).
54. beat it, Informal. to depart; go away: He was pestering me, so I told him to beat it.
55. beat the air or wind, to make repeated futile attempts.
56. beat the rap. rap 1 (def. 16).
57. off one's beat, outside of one's routine, general knowledge, or range of experience: He protested that nonobjective art was off his beat.
58. on the beat, in the correct rhythm or tempo: By the end of the number they were all finally playing on the beat.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME beten, OE bēatan; c. ON bauta, MLG bōten, OHG bōzzan; akin to MIr búalaim I hit, L fūstis a stick < *bheud-

Related forms:
beat⋅a⋅ble, adjective

Synonyms:
1. belabor, batter, drub, maul, baste, pommel, cudgel, buffet, flog. Beat, hit, pound, strike, thrash refer to the giving of a blow or blows. Beat implies the giving of repeated blows: to beat a rug. To hit is usually to give a single blow, definitely directed: to hit a ball. To pound is to give heavy and repeated blows, often with the fist: to pound a nail, the table. To strike is to give one or more forceful blows suddenly or swiftly: to strike a gong. To thrash implies inflicting repeated blows as punishment, to show superior strength, and the like: to thrash a child. 12. conquer, subdue, vanquish, overpower. 14. excel, outdo, surpass. 22. See pulsate.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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beat   (bēt)   
v.   beat, beat·en (bēt'n) or beat, beat·ing, beats

v.   tr.

    1. To strike repeatedly.

    2. To subject to repeated beatings or physical abuse; batter.

    3. To punish by hitting or whipping; flog.

    4. To strike against repeatedly and with force; pound: waves beating the shore.

    5. To flap, especially wings.

    6. To strike so as to produce music or a signal: beat a drum.

    7. Music To mark or count (time or rhythm), especially with the hands or with a baton.

    8. To shape or break by repeated blows; forge: beat the glowing metal into a dagger.

    9. To make by pounding or trampling: beat a path through the jungle.

    10. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    11. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    12. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    13. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    14. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    15. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

    1. To strike against repeatedly and with force; pound: waves beating the shore.

    2. To flap, especially wings.

    3. To strike so as to produce music or a signal: beat a drum.

    4. Music To mark or count (time or rhythm), especially with the hands or with a baton.

    5. To shape or break by repeated blows; forge: beat the glowing metal into a dagger.

    6. To make by pounding or trampling: beat a path through the jungle.

    7. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    8. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    9. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    10. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    11. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    12. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

    1. To shape or break by repeated blows; forge: beat the glowing metal into a dagger.

    2. To make by pounding or trampling: beat a path through the jungle.

    3. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    4. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    5. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    6. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    7. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    8. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

  4. To mix rapidly with a utensil: beat two eggs in a bowl.

    1. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    2. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    3. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    4. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    5. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    6. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

  6. Informal To be superior to or better than: Riding beats walking.

  7. Slang To perplex or baffle: It beats me; I don't know the answer.

  8. Informal

    1. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    2. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    3. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

  9. Physics To cause a reference wave to combine with (a second wave) so that the frequency of the second wave can be studied through time variations in the amplitude of the combination.

v.   intr.

  1. To inflict repeated blows.

  2. To pulsate; throb.

    1. To emit sound when struck: The gong beat thunderously.

    2. To strike a drum.

  4. To flap repeatedly.

  5. To shine or glare intensely: The sun beat down on us all day.

  6. To fall in torrents: The rain beat on the roof.

  7. To hunt through woods or underbrush in search of game.

  8. Nautical To sail in the direction from which the wind blows.

n.  

  1. A stroke or blow, especially one that produces a sound or serves as a signal.

  2. A pulsation or throb.

  3. Physics A variation in amplitude that results from the superpositioning of two or more waves of different frequencies. When sound waves are combined, the variation is heard as a pulsation in the sound.

  4. Music

    1. A steady succession of units of rhythm.

    2. A gesture used by a conductor to indicate such a unit.

    3. The area regularly covered by a reporter, a police officer, or a sentry: television's culture beat.

    4. The reporting of a news item obtained ahead of one's competitors.

  5. A pattern of stress that produces the rhythm of verse.

  6. A variable unit of time measuring a pause taken by an actor, as for dramatic effect.

    1. The area regularly covered by a reporter, a police officer, or a sentry: television's culture beat.

    2. The reporting of a news item obtained ahead of one's competitors.

  8. often Beat A member of the Beat Generation.

adj.  

  1. Informal Worn-out; fatigued.

  2. often Beat Of or relating to the Beat Generation.

  3. To drive away.

  4. Vulgar Slang To masturbate.

Phrasal Verb(s):
beat off

  1. To drive away.

  2. Vulgar Slang To masturbate.

beat outBaseball To reach base safely on (a bunt or ground ball) when a putout is attempted.

Idiom(s):
beat allTo be impressive or amazing. Often used in negative conditional constructions: If that doesn't beat all!

Idiom(s):
beat a retreatTo make a hasty withdrawal.

Idiom(s):
beat around/about the bushTo fail to confront a subject directly.

Idiom(s):
beat it Slang To leave hurriedly.

Idiom(s):
beat the bushesTo make an exhaustive search.

Idiom(s):
beat the drum/drumsTo give enthusiastic public support or promotion: a politician who beats the drum for liberalism.

Idiom(s):
beat up on

  1. To attack physically.

  2. To criticize or scold harshly.


Idiom(s):
to beat the bandTo an extreme degree.

[Middle English beten, from Old English bēaten; see bhau- in Indo-European roots.]
Synonyms: These verbs mean to hit heavily and repeatedly with violent blows: was mugged and beaten; basted him with a stick; was battered in the boxing ring; rioting students belabored by police officers; buffeted him with her open palm; hammered the opponent with his fists; lambasted every challenger; troops pounded with mortar fire; pummeled the bully soundly; thrashed the thief for stealing the candy. See Also Synonyms at defeat.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
beat

  1. mod.
    exhausted; worn-out. : The whole family was beat after the game.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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beat (so's)

  1. tv.
    to beat someone severely. : She threatened to beat my brains out.
  2. tv.
    to drive oneself hard (to accomplish something). : I beat my brains out all day to clean this house, and you come in and track up the carpet!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

beat 
O.E. beatan "inflict blows on, thrash" (class VII strong verb; past tense beot, pp. beaten), from P.Gmc. *bautan (cf. O.N. bauta, O.H.G. bozan), from PIE base *bhau- "to strike" (see batter (v.)). Of the heart, c.1200, from notion of it striking against the breast. Meaning "to overcome in a contest" is from 1611. Meaning "strike cover to rouse or drive game" (M.E.) is source of beat around the bush (1572), the metaphoric sense of which has shifted from "make preliminary motions" to "avoid, evade." Command beat it "go away" first recorded 1906 (though "action of feet upon the ground" was a sense of O.E. betan). Dead-beat (originally "tired-out") preserves the old pp. To beat (someone) up is c.1900. To beat off "masturbate" is recorded by 1960s. For beat generation, see beatnik.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1beat
Pronunciation: 'bEt
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Forms: beat;beat·en /'bEt-&n/ or beat;beat·ing
: PULSATE, THROB

Main Entry: 2beat
Function: noun
: a single stroke or pulsation (as of the heart) beats> —see EXTRASYSTOLE
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

beat (bēt)
v. beat, beat·en (bēt'n), beat·ing, beats

  1. To strike repeatedly.

  2. To pulsate; throb.

n.
A stroke, impulse, or pulsation, especially one that produces a sound as of the heart or pulse.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Idioms & Phrases

beat

In addition to the idioms beginning with beat, also see dead beat; heart misses a beat; if you can't beat them, join them; march to a different beat; miss a beat; off the beaten track; pound the pavement (a beat); to beat the band.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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