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verb (used with object)

to strike violently or forcefully and repeatedly.

to dash against: rain beating the trees.

to flutter, flap, or rotate in or against: beating the air with its wings.

to sound, as on a drum: beating a steady rhythm; to beat a tattoo.

to stir vigorously: Beat the egg whites well.

to break, forge, or make by blows: to beat their swords into plowshares.

to produce (an attitude, idea, habit, etc.) by repeated efforts: I'll beat some sense into him.

to make (a path) by repeated treading.

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 followed 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.

Relevant Questions

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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 followed 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.

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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.

the audible, visual, or mental marking of the metrical divisions of music.

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.

the reporting of a piece of news in advance, especially before it is reported by a rival or rivals. Compare exclusive ( def 13 ), scoop ( def 9 ).

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,

to search through; scour: After beating about for several hours, he turned up the missing papers.

Nautical. to tack into the wind.

46.

beat back, to force back; compel to withdraw: to beat back an attacker.

47.

beat down,

to bring into subjection; subdue.

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,

to ward off; repulse: We had to beat off clouds of mosquitoes.

Slang: Vulgar. to masturbate.

49.

beat out,

Informal. to defeat; win or be chosen over: to beat out the competition.

Carpentry. to cut (a mortise).

to produce hurriedly, especially by writing or typing: There are three days left to beat out the first draft of the novel.

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,

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.

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, especially 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/about the bush. bush¹ ( def 16 ).

54.

beat it, Informal. to depart; go away: He was pestering me, so I told him to beat it.

55.

beat the air/wind, to make repeated futile attempts.

56.

beat the rap. rap¹ ( def 17 ).

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:
before 900; Middle English beten, Old English bēatan; cognate with Old Norse bauta, Middle Low German bōten, Old High German bōzzan; akin to MIr búalaim I hit, Latin fūstis a stick < *bheud-

Related forms

beat·a·ble, adjective

o·ver·beat, verb, o·ver·beat, o·ver·beat·en or o·ver·beat, o·ver·beat·ing.

un·der·beat, noun

Can be confused: beat, beet (see synonym study at the current entry).

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.

Link To beat

Collins

World English Dictionary

beat (biːt)

—vb (when intr, often foll by against, on, etc) (sometimes foll by up) (sometimes foll by out) (when tr, sometimes foll by out) , beats, beating, beat, beaten, beat
1.	to strike with or as if with a series of violent blows; dash or pound repeatedly (against)
2.	(tr) to punish by striking; flog
3.	to move or cause to move up and down; flap: the bird beat its wings heavily
4.	(intr) to throb rhythmically; pulsate: her heart beat fast
5.	(tr) to make (one's way) by or as if by blows: she beat her way out of the crowd
6.	cookery to stir or whisk (an ingredient or mixture) vigorously
7.	to shape, make thin, or flatten (a piece of metal) by repeated blows
8.	(tr) music to indicate (time) by the motion of one's hand, baton, etc, or by the action of a metronome
9.	to produce (a sound or signal) by or as if by striking a drum
10.	to sound or cause to sound, by or as if by beating: beat the drums!
11.	to overcome (an opponent) in a contest, battle, etc
12.	(tr; often foll by back, down, off etc) to drive, push, or thrust
13.	(tr) to arrive or finish before (someone or something); anticipate or forestall: they set off early to beat the rush hour
14.	(tr) to form (a path or track) by repeatedly walking or riding over it
15.	to scour (woodlands, coverts, or undergrowth) so as to rouse game for shooting
16.	slang (tr) to puzzle or baffle: it beats me how he can do that
17.	(intr) physics (of sounds or electrical signals) to combine and produce a pulsating sound or signal
18.	(intr) nautical to steer a sailing vessel as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
19.	slang chiefly (US) (tr) to cheat or defraud: he beat his brother out of the inheritance
20.	beat about the bush to avoid the point at issue; prevaricate
21.	beat a retreat to withdraw or depart in haste
22.	slang (often imperative) beat it to go away
23.	beat one's breast See breast
24.	slang beat someone's brains out to kill by knocking severely about the head
25.	informal beat someone to it to reach a place or achieve an objective before someone else
26.	(Brit) beat the bounds (formerly) to define the boundaries of a parish by making a procession around them and hitting the ground with rods
27.	slang can you beat it?, can you beat that? an expression of utter amazement or surprise

—n
28.	a stroke or blow
29.	the sound made by a stroke or blow
30.	a regular sound or stroke; throb
31.	a. an assigned or habitual round or route, as of a policeman or sentry
	b. (as modifier): beat police officers
32.	the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music, usually grouped in twos, threes, or fours
33.	a. pop or rock music characterized by a heavy rhythmic beat
	b. (as modifier): a beat group
34.	physics the low regular frequency produced by combining two sounds or electrical signals that have similar frequencies
35.	horology the impulse given to the balance wheel by the action of the escapement
36.	prosody the accent, stress, or ictus in a metrical foot
37.	nautical a course that steers a sailing vessel as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
38.	a. the act of scouring for game by beating
	b. the organized scouring of a particular woodland so as to rouse the game in it
	c. the woodland where game is so roused
39.	short for beatnik
40.	fencing a sharp tap with one's blade on an opponent's blade to deflect it
41.	(modifier, often capital) of, characterized by, or relating to the Beat Generation: a beat poet; beat philosophy

—*adj*
42.	slang (postpositive) totally exhausted

[Old English bēatan; related to Old Norse bauta, Old High German bōzan]

'beatable

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

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 "to beat"), 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 1610s (the source of the sense of "legally avoid, escape" in beat the charges, etc., attested from c.1920 in underworld slang). Meaning "strike cover to rouse or drive game" (M.E.) is source of beat around the bush (1570s), 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 off "masturbate" is recorded by 1960s. For beat generation see beatnik.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

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

To strike repeatedly.
To pulsate; throb.

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

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

beat

(bēt) Pronunciation Key
A fluctuation or pulsation, usually repeated, in the amplitude of a signal. Beats are generally produced by the superposition of two waves of different frequencies; if the signals are audible, this results in fluctuations between louder and quieter sound.

Slang Dictionary

beat definition

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.
Cite This Source

beat (so's) definition

tv.
to beat someone severely. : She threatened to beat my brains out.
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.
Cite This Source

American Heritage

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.