Beat /(bēt)/

Beat

v. t.

imp. Beat; p. p. Beat; p. pr. & vb. n. 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.
    — Ex. xxx. 36.
    They did beat the gold into thin plates.
    — Ex. xxxix. 3.
  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.
    — Blackmore.
  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. 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. (Mil.)
  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.

Phrases & Compounds
To beat down
to haggle with (any one) to secure a lower price; to force down.
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
to cause to relinquish it, or give it up.
To beat the dust
To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a horse.
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.

Beat

v. i.
  1. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
    The men of the city . . . beat at the door.
    — Judges. xix. 22.
  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.
    — Jonah iv. 8.
    Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
  4. To be in agitation or doubt. [Poetic]
    To still my beating mind.
  5. To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse. (Naut.)
  6. To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
  7. To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters. (Mil.)
  8. 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. (Acoustics & Mus.)

Phrases & Compounds
A beating wind
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
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.

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. 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. (Mus.)
  4. A sudden swelling or reënforcement 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. (Acoustics & Mus.)
  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]

Phrases & Compounds
Beat of drum
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
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

a.
  1. Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted. [Colloq.]
    Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed.

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 (Newspaper Cant)
    It's a beat on the whole country.
    — Scribner's Mag.
  3. The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively. (Hunting)
    Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them.
    — Encyc. of Sport.
  4. A smart tap on the adversary's blade. (Fencing)