beat

beat [bēt]

vt.

beat, beaten, beating [ME beten < OE beatan < IE * bhaut- < base * bhau-, * bhū-, to strike, beat > BEETLE², BUTT¹ & BUTT², L fustis, a club]

1. to hit or strike repeatedly; pound

2. to punish by striking repeatedly and hard; whip, flog, spank, etc.

3. to dash repeatedly against [waves beat the shore]

4.

a) to form by repeated treading or riding [to beat a path through grass]

b) to keep walking on [to beat the pavements]

5. to shape or flatten by hammering; forge

6. to mix by stirring or striking repeatedly with a utensil; whip (an egg, cream, etc.)

7. to move (esp. wings) up and down; flap; flail

8. to hunt through; search [the posse beat the countryside for the fugitive]

9. to make, force, or drive by or as by hitting, flailing, or pounding [to beat one's way through a crowd, to beat chalk dust from erasers]

10.

a) to defeat in a race, contest, or struggle; overcome

b) to outdo or surpass

c) to act, arrive, or finish before

11. to mark (time or rhythm) by tapping, etc.

12. to sound or signal, as by a drumbeat

13. Informal to baffle or puzzle

☆ 14. Informal to cheat or trick

☆ 15. Slang to avoid the penalties associated with (a charge, indictment, etc.); escape (a rap)

vi.

1. to strike, hit, or dash repeatedly and, usually, hard

2. to move or sound rhythmically; throb, pulsate, vibrate, tick, etc.

3. to strike about in or hunt through underbrush, woods, etc. for game

4. to take beating or stirring [this cream doesn't beat well]

5.

a) to make a sound by being struck, as a drum

b) to beat a drum, as to sound a signal

6. Informal to win

7. Naut. to progress by tacking into the wind

8. Radio to combine two waves of different frequencies, thus producing an additional frequency equal to the difference between these

n.

1. a beating, as of the heart

2. any of a series of blows or strokes

3. any of a series of movements or sounds; throb

4.

a) a habitual path or round of duty [a policeman's beat]

b) the subject or area assigned regularly to a news writer

5.

a) the unit of musical rhythm [four beats to a measure]

b) the accent or stress in the rhythm of verse or music

c) the gesture of the hand, baton, etc. used to mark this

6. Ballet a movement in which one leg is brought in contact with the other or both legs are brought together in the air

☆ 7. Informal a person or thing that surpasses [you never saw the beat of it ]

8.

☆ a) BEATNIK

b) [often B-] any of a group of U.S. writers in the 1950s and 1960s whose work grew out of and expressed beat attitudes

9. Acoustics the regularly recurring fluctuation in loudness of sound produced by two simultaneous tones of nearly equal frequency

☆ 10. Journalism a reporting of a news item ahead of all rivals; scoop

11. Naut. a tack into the wind

12. Radio one cycle of a frequency formed by beating

adj.

1. Informal tired out; exhausted, physically or emotionally

☆ 2. of or belonging to a group of young persons, esp. of the 1950s, rebelling against conventional attitudes, dress, speech, etc., largely as an expression of social disillusionment

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beat about

to hunt or look through or around

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beat back

to force to retreat; drive back

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beat down

1. to shine steadily with dazzling light and intense heat, as the sun

2. to put down; suppress

3. Informal to force to a lower price

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☆ beat it!

Slang go away!

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beat off

1. to drive back; repel

☆ 2. Slang to masturbate: said of a male

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beat one's meat

[Vulgar Slang] to masturbate: said of a male

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☆ beat out

Baseball to reach first base safely on (a bunt or grounder), as before an infielder's throw

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☆ beat up on or beat up

Slang to give a beating to; thrash

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on the beat

in tempoto beat the band ( or hell, the devil, etc.)

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to beat the band or to beat hell or to beat the devil or to beat the hell

Slang with great energy and vigor; fast and furiously

SYN.- BEAT, the most general word in this comparison, conveys the basic idea of hitting or striking repeatedly, whether with the hands, the feet, an implement, etc.; POUND² suggests heavier, more effective blows than BEAT [to pound with a hammer ]; PUMMEL implies the beating of a person with the fists and suggests a continuous, indiscriminate rain of damaging blows; THRASH, originally referring to the beating of grain with a flail, suggests similar broad, swinging strokes, as in striking a person repeatedly with a stick, etc.; FLOG implies a punishing by the infliction of repeated blows with a stick, strap, whip, etc.; WHIP, often used as an equivalent of FLOG, specifically suggests lashing strokes or motions; MAUL implies the infliction of repeated heavy blows so as to bruise or lacerate. Most of these terms are used loosely, esp. by journalists, in describing a decisive victory in a contest