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.
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