Definitions for: Beat


[n] the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
[n] a stroke or blow; "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe"
[n] a regular rate of repetition; "the cox raised the beat"
[n] the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music; "the piece has a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat"
[n] (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
[n] the sound of stroke or blow; "he heard the beat of a drum"
[n] the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart; "he could feel the beat of her heart"
[n] a regular route for a sentry or policeman; "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name"
[n] a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
[n] a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations
[v] be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"
[v] wear out completely; "This kind of work exhausts me"; "I'm beat"; "He was all washed up after the exam"
[v] come out better in a competition, race, or conflict; "Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game"
[v] beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors"
[v] make by pounding or trampling; "beat a path through the forest"
[v] give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression; "Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night"; "The teacher used to beat the students"
[v] hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe"
[v] strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
[v] strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music; "beat one's breast"; "beat one's foot rhythmically"
[v] stir vigorously; "beat the egg whites"; "beat the cream"
[v] shape by beating; "beat swords into ploughshares"
[v] produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly; "beat the drum"
[v] move with or as if with a regular alternating motion; "the city pulsated with music and excitement"
[v] move rhythmically; "Her heart was beating fast"
[v] indicate by beating; as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm"
[v] sail with much tacking or with difficulty; "The boat beat in the strong wind"
[v] move with a flapping motion; "The bird's wings were flapping"
[v] move with a thrashing motion; "The bird flapped its wings"; "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky"
[v] glare or strike with great intensity; "The sun was beating down on us"
[v] make a rhythmic sound; "Rain drummed against the windshield"; "The drums beat all night"
[v] make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight"
[v] deprive somebody of something by deceit; "The con-man beat me out of $50"; "This salesman ripped us off!"; "we were cheated by their clever-sounding scheme"; "They chiseled me out of my money"
[v] be superior; "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work!"



Webster (1913) Definition: Beat, v. t. [imp. Beat; p. p. Beat, Beaten; p. pr.
& vb. n. Beating.] [OE. beaten, beten, AS. be['a]tan; akin
to Icel. bauta, OHG. b?zan. Cf. 1st Butt, Button.]
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.
--Prior.

4. To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.

A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.
--Milton.

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 or conquer; to surpass.

He beat them in a bloody battle. --Prescott.

For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that. --M.
Arnold.

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?
--Locke.

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.

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.'' --South.

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.

Syn: To strike; pound; bang; buffet; maul; drub; thump;
baste; thwack; thrash; pommel; cudgel; belabor; conquer;
defeat; vanquish; overcome.


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. --Byron.

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. --Dryden.

They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
--Longfellow.

The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he
fainted, and wisbed in himself to die. --Jonah iv.
8.

Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
--Bacon.

4. To be in agitation or doubt. [Poetic]

To still my beating mind. --Shak.

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. --Addison.

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.


Beat, n.
1. A stroke; a blow.

He, with a careless beat, Struck out the mute
creation at a heat. --Dryden.

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 re["e]nforcement
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.

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. [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 clock, the stroke or sound made by
the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of
beat, according as the strokes is at equal or unequal
intervals.


Beat, a.
Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted. [Colloq.]

Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed.
--Dickens.


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; a scoop.

It's a beat on the whole country. --Scribner's
Mag.
(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.'' --Encyc. of Sport.

Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the
last moment, when the beat is close to them.
--Encyc. of
Sport.
(c) (Fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.

Synonyms: amaze, baffle, beat out, beat up, beatnik, bewilder, cadence, cheat, chisel, crush, drum, dumbfound, exhaust, flummox, get, gravel, heartbeat, measure, meter, musical rhythm, mystify, nonplus, perplex, pose, pound, pulsate, pulsation, pulse, puzzle, quiver, rhythm, rip off, round, scramble, shell, stupefy, thrum, thump, tick, ticktack, ticktock, trounce, tucker, tucker out, vanquish, vex, wash up, work over

See Also: agitate, backbeat, baste, bastinado, bat, bate, batter, be, beat generation, beat out, beatniks, beats, bedevil, beetle, befuddle, beguile, belabor, belabour, best, bilk, bunco, cane, cheat, checkmate, chicane, chouse, clap, clobber, clobber, coldcock, common measure, common meter, commove, con, confound, confuse, cozen, cream, create, deceive, deck, defeat, defraud, delude, diastole, diddle, discombobulate, displace, disturb, downbeat, drub, dump, eliminate, elude, escape, exceed, fag, fag out, fatigue, figure out, flail, flail, flap, fleece, flog, floor, flutter, foot, forge, form, fox, frazzle, fuddle, gazump, get the jump, glare, go, goldbrick, gyp, hammer, hammer, hit, hoodwink, hook, immobilise, immobilize, itinerary, jade, jockey, juggle, kayo, knock cold, knock down, knock out, lam, lambast, lambaste, larrup, lash, lather, lead on, lick, lick, make, mate, metrical foot, metrical unit, mix up, mold, mop up, mould, move, mulct, musical time, nobble, nonconformist, oscillation, outdo, outfight, outflank, outgo, outmatch, outplay, outpoint, outscore, outstrip, outwear, overcharge, overcome, overmaster, overpower, overwhelm, pace, paddle, palpitate, paste, path, periodic event, pip, pistol-whip, play, play, pluck, plume, poetic rhythm, pounding, prosody, puzzle out, puzzle over, rack up, raise up, rate, recurrent event, recusant, rhythmic pattern, riddle, rob, rook, rough up, rout, route, sail, sailing, scam, scansion, scoop, screw, shaft, shake up, shape, slash, soak, soak, solve, sound, sound, spank, spreadeagle, spread-eagle, stagger, stir up, strap, strike, stroke, strong-arm, stump, surcharge, surmount, surpass, swindle, syncopation, systole, tap out, thrash, thrash, thrash, thresh, thresh, throb, throbbing, throw, thump out, tire, tire out, trample, tread, trounce, trump, upbeat, vex, vibration, victimise, victimize, wear, wear down, wear out, wear upon, weary, welsh, welt, whang, whip, whip, whipsaw, whisk, whomp, win, work, work, work out, worst

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