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Beat   /bit/   Listen
verb
Beat  v. t.  (past beat; past part. beaten; pres. part. beating)  
1.
To strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon; as, to beat one's breast; to beat iron so as to shape it; to beat grain, in order to force out the seeds; to beat eggs and sugar; to beat a drum. "Thou shalt beat some of it (spices) very small." "They did beat the gold into thin plates."
2.
To punish by blows; to thrash.
3.
To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game. "To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey."
4.
To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind. "A frozen continent... beat with perpetual storms."
5.
To tread, as a path. "Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way."
6.
To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, etc.; to vanquish, defeat, or conquer; to surpass or be superior to. "He beat them in a bloody battle." "For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that."
7.
To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; often with out. (Colloq.)
8.
To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble. "Why should any one... beat his head about the Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?"
9.
(Mil.) To give the signal for, by beat of drum; to sound by beat of drum; as, to beat an alarm, a charge, a parley, a retreat; to beat the general, the reveille, the tattoo. See Alarm, Charge, Parley, etc.
10.
To baffle or stump; to defy the comprehension of (a person); as, it beats me why he would do that.
11.
To evade, avoid, or escape (blame, taxes, punishment); as, to beat the rap (be acquitted); to beat the sales tax by buying out of state.
To beat down, to haggle with (any one) to secure a lower price; to force down. (Colloq.)
To beat into, to teach or instill, by repetition.
To beat off, to repel or drive back.
To beat out, to extend by hammering.
To beat out of a thing, to cause to relinquish it, or give it up. "Nor can anything beat their posterity out of it to this day."
To beat the dust. (Man.)
(a)
To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a horse.
(b)
To perform curvets too precipitately or too low.
To beat the hoof, to walk; to go on foot.
To beat the wing, to flutter; to move with fluttering agitation.
To beat time, to measure or regulate time in music by the motion of the hand or foot.
To beat up, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to beat up an enemy's quarters.
Synonyms: To strike; pound; bang; buffet; maul; drub; thump; baste; thwack; thrash; pommel; cudgel; belabor; conquer; defeat; vanquish; overcome.


Beat  v. i.  (past beat; past part. beaten; pres. part. beating)  
1.
To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly. "The men of the city... beat at the door."
2.
To move with pulsation or throbbing. "A thousand hearts beat happily."
3.
To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force; to strike anything, as rain, wind, and waves do. "Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below." "They (winds) beat at the crazy casement." "The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die." "Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers."
4.
To be in agitation or doubt. (Poetic) "To still my beating mind."
5.
(Naut.) To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.
6.
To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
7.
(Mil.) To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
8.
(Acoustics & Mus.) To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
A beating wind (Naut.), a wind which necessitates tacking in order to make progress.
To beat about, to try to find; to search by various means or ways.
To beat about the bush, to approach a subject circuitously.
To beat up and down (Hunting), to run first one way and then another; said of a stag.
To beat up for recruits, to go diligently about in order to get helpers or participators in an enterprise.
To beat the rap, to be acquitted of an accusation; especially, by some sly or deceptive means, rather than to be proven innocent.


noun
Beat  n.  
1.
A stroke; a blow. "He, with a careless beat, Struck out the mute creation at a heat."
2.
A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse.
3.
(Mus.)
(a)
The rise or fall of the hand or foot, marking the divisions of time; a division of the measure so marked. In the rhythm of music the beat is the unit.
(b)
A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament.
4.
(Acoustics & Mus.) A sudden swelling or reenforcement of a sound, recurring at regular intervals, and produced by the interference of sound waves of slightly different periods of vibrations; applied also, by analogy, to other kinds of wave motions; the pulsation or throbbing produced by the vibrating together of two tones not quite in unison. See Beat, v. i., 8.
5.
A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat; analogously, for newspaper reporters, the subject or territory that they are assigned to cover; as, the Washington beat.
6.
A place of habitual or frequent resort.
7.
A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat; also, deadbeat. (Low)
Beat of drum (Mil.), a succession of strokes varied, in different ways, for particular purposes, as to regulate a march, to call soldiers to their arms or quarters, to direct an attack, or retreat, etc.
Beat of a watch, or Beat of a clock, the stroke or sound made by the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of beat, according as the stroke is at equal or unequal intervals.


Beat  n.  
1.
One that beats, or surpasses, another or others; as, the beat of him. (Colloq.)
2.
The act of one that beats a person or thing; as:
(a)
(Newspaper Cant) The act of obtaining and publishing a piece of news by a newspaper before its competitors; also, the news itself; also called a scoop or exclusive. "It's a beat on the whole country."
(b)
(Hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively. "Driven out in the course of a beat." "Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them."
(c)
(Fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.


adjective
Beat  adj.  Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted. (Colloq.) "Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Beat" Quotes from Famous Books



... of a hundred to the man who can beat that shootin' still goes," he declared. "An' I'm taking off the condition. The man that tries don't have to belong to Dry Bottom. ...
— The Two-Gun Man • Charles Alden Seltzer
... combat. Large numbers of elephants and crowds of cars were seen everywhere, O king, to rush towards one another for purposes of slaughter. And the rattle of innumerable cars rushing (to join the fray), or engaged separately raised a loud uproar, mingling with the beat of drums. And the shouts of the heroic combatants belonging to thy army and theirs, O Bharata, slaying one another in that fierce ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli
... noticed that fowls here are very small, but very lively, catching the fire of a long Saharan summer. The cocks, which are so many bantams, are indeed all fire, attacking you with fierceness. Two of the Governor's sons called at noon. One flourished a spear, which he said was "to beat Christians with." I pushed him out of my apartment down stairs. With such customers it is the only plan. Another son called a short time afterwards, and asked me to lend him three dollars, which, of course, I refused. ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson
... except about our outposts. Indeed, I desired that Early might remain at some point well to the north till I was fully prepared to throw my army on his right and rear and force a battle, and hence I abstained from disturbing him by premature activity, for I thought that if I could beat him at Winchester, or north of it, there would be far greater chances of weighty results. I therefore determined to bring my troops, if it were at all possible to do so, into such a position near that town ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan
... disorderly hair looked like a wig of twisted black wire, while the jerkin he wore seemed almost dropping from his long, sinewy frame. He made his sharp weapon whistle three or four times in the air and tapped his foot impatiently upon the marble floor as though anxious to begin. Greif's heart beat quickly, and he was conscious that he would infinitely rather fight the ...
— Greifenstein • F. Marion Crawford


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