Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Beat

Beat

(bēt)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp.
Beat
;
p. p.
Beat
,
Beaten
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Beating
.]
[OE.
beaten
,
beten
, AS.
beátan
; akin to Icel.
bauta
, OHG.
bōzan
. 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, defeat, or conquer; to surpass or be superior to.
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.
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.”
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

,
Verb.
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 wished 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.
Shakespeare
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.
–
To beat the rap
,
to be acquitted of an accusation; – especially, by some sly or deceptive means, rather than to be proven innocent.

Beat

,
Noun.
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 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
,
Verb.
I.
, 8.
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

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

Webster 1828 Edition

Beat

BEAT

,
Verb.
T.
pret. beat; pp. beat, beaten. [L. batuo. See Abate.]
1.
To strike repeatedly; to lay on repeated blows, with a stick, with the hand or fist, or with any instrument, and for any cause,just or unjust, or for punishment. Luke 12. Deut.25.
2.
To strike an instrument of music; to play on, as a drum.
3.
To break, bruise,comminute, or pulverize by beating or pounding, as pepper or spices. Ex.30.
4.
To extend by beating, as gold or other malleable substance; or to hammer into any form; to forge. Ex.39.
5.
To strike bushes, to shake by beating, or to make a noise to rouse game.
6.
To thresh; to force out corn from the husk by blows.
7.
To break, mix or agitate by beating; as, to beat an egg with any other thing.
8.
To dash or strike, as water; to strike or brush, as wind.
9.
To tread, as a path.
10. To overcome in a battle, contest or strife; to vanquish or conquer; as, one beats another at play.
Phrrhus beat the Carthaginians at sea.
11. To harass; to exercise severely; to overlabor; as, to beat the brains about logic.
To beat down, to break, destroy, throw down, by beating or battering, as a wall.
Also, to press down or lay flat, as by treading, by a current of water, by violent wind, &c.
Also, to lower the price by importunity or argument.
Also, to depress or crush; as, to bet down opposition.
Also, to sink or lessen the price or value.
Usury beats down the price of land.
To beat back, to compel to retire or return.
To beat into, to teach or instill, by repetition of instruction.
To beat up, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to beat up an enemy's quarters.
To beat the wing, to flutter; to move with fluttering agitation.
To beat off, to repel or drive back.
To beat the hoof, to walk; to go on foot.
To beat time, to measure or regulate time in music by the motion of the hand or foot.
In the manerge, a horse beats the dust, when at each motion he does not take in ground enough with his fore legs; and at curvets, when he does them too precipitately, or too low. He beats upon a walk, when he walks too short.
To beat out, to extend by hammering. In popular use, to be beat out, is to be extremely fatigued; to have the strength exhausted by labor or exertion.

BEAT

,
Verb.
I.
To more with pulsation, as the pulse beats; or to throb, as the heart beats.
1.
To dash with force, as a storm, flood, passion, &c.; as, the tempest beats against the house.
2.
To knock at a door. Judges 19.
3. To fluctuate; to be in agitation.
To beat about, to try to find; to search by various means or ways.
To beat upon, to act upon with violence.
Also, to speak frequently; to enforce by repetition.
To beat up for soldiers,is to go about to enlist men into the army.
In seamanship, to beat, is to make progress against the direction of the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.
With hunters, a stag beats up and down, when he runs first one way and then another.

BEAT

,
Noun.
A stroke; a striking; a blow, whether with the hand, or with a weapon.
1.
A pulsation; as the beat of the pulse.
2.
The rise or fall of the hand or foot, in regulating the divisions of time in music.
3.
A transient grace-note in music, struck immediately before the note it is intended to ornament.
In the military art, the beat of drum, is 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, &c.
The beat of a watch or clock, is the stroke made by the fangs or pallets of the spindle of the balance, or of the pads in a royal pendulum.

BEAT

Definition 2024

beat

beat

See also: béat and béât

English

Noun

beat ‎(plural beats)

  1. A stroke; a blow.
    • Dryden
      He, with a careless beat, / Struck out the mute creation at a heat.
  2. A pulsation or throb.
    a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse
  3. A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.
  4. A rhythm.
  5. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (music) A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament.
  6. The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency
  7. A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
  8. The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.
    to walk the beat
    • 1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 3, in A Study in Scarlet:
      There has been a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. Our man on the beat saw a light there about two in the morning, and as the house was an empty one, suspected that something was amiss.
  9. (by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially
    1. In journalism, the primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
  10. (dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
    • Scribner's Magazine
      It's a beat on the whole country.
  11. (colloquial, dated) That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.
    the beat of him
  12. (dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
  13. (archaic) A low cheat or swindler.
    a dead beat
  14. The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
  15. (hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
    • Encyclopaedia of Sport
      Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them.
  16. (fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
Derived terms
Translations
See also
  • (piece of hip-hop music): track

Verb

beat ‎(third-person singular simple present beats, present participle beating, simple past beat, past participle beaten or beat)

  1. (transitive) To hit; to knock; to pound; to strike.
    As soon as she heard that Wiktionary was shutting down, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.
    • 2012 August 21, Pilkington, Ed, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian:
      In this account of events, the cards were stacked against Clemons from the beginning. His appeal lawyers have argued that he was physically beaten into making a confession, the jury was wrongfully selected and misdirected, and his conviction largely achieved on individual testimony with no supporting forensic evidence presented.
    • 1825?, "Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder", in The Newgate Calendar: comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters, page 231:
      Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat: that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall […]
  2. (transitive) To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
    He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
  3. (intransitive) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
    • Bible, Judges xix. 22
      The men of the city […] beat at the door.
    • Dryden
      Rolling tempests vainly beat below.
    • Longfellow
      They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
    • Bible, Jonath iv. 8
      The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
    • Francis Bacon
      Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
  4. (intransitive) To move with pulsation or throbbing.
    • Byron
      A thousand hearts beat happily.
  5. (transitive) To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do better than, outdo, or excel (someone) in a particular, competitive event.
    Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.
    No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him.
    I just can't seem to beat the last level of this video game.
  6. (intransitive, nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
  7. (transitive) To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
    • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate 2012, page 81:
      The part of the wood to be beaten for deer sloped all the way from the roadside to the loch.
  8. To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
    Beat the eggs and whip the cream.
  9. (transitive, Britain, In haggling for a price) of a buyer, to persuade the seller to reduce a price
    He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
  10. (transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.
    to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters
  11. To tread, as a path.
    • Blackmore
      pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way
  12. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
    • John Locke
      Why should any one […] beat his head about the Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?
  13. To be in agitation or doubt.
    • Shakespeare
      to still my beating mind
  14. To make a sound when struck.
    The drums beat.
  15. (military, intransitive) To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
    The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
  16. 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.
  17. (transitive) To arrive at a place before someone.
    He beat me there.
    The place is empty, we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch.
Derived terms
Translations
nautical - to sail to windward
  • Finnish: luovia
  • French: remonter au vent
  • Maori: ngongo, kake, whakakake, tūmū

Adjective

beat ‎(comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

  1. (US slang) exhausted
    After the long day, she was feeling completely beat.
  2. dilapidated, beat up
    Dude, you drive a beat car like that and you ain’t gonna get no honeys.
  3. (gay slang) fabulous
    Her makeup was beat!
  4. (slang) boring
  5. (slang, of a person) ugly
Synonyms
  • See also Wikisaurus:fatigued
Translations

Etymology 2

From beatnik

Noun

beat ‎(plural beats)

  1. A beatnik.
    • David Wills, Beatdom Issue Three
      The beats were pioneers with no destination, changing the world one impulse at a time.
Derived terms
  • beat generation

References

  • DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.

Anagrams

Catalan

Adjective

beat m ‎(feminine beata, masculine plural beats, feminine plural beates)

  1. saint, beatified

Noun

beat m ‎(plural beats)

  1. monk

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology

From English beat.

Noun

beat m ‎(plural beats, diminutive beatje n)

  1. A beat, rhythmic pulsation, notably in music

Anagrams

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowing from English beat.

Noun

beat

  1. A beat (in music)

Declension

Inflection of beat (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative beat beatit
genitive beatin beatien
partitive beatiä beatejä
illative beatiin beateihin
singular plural
nominative beat beatit
accusative nom. beat beatit
gen. beatin
genitive beatin beatien
partitive beatiä beatejä
inessive beatissä beateissä
elative beatistä beateistä
illative beatiin beateihin
adessive beatillä beateillä
ablative beatiltä beateiltä
allative beatille beateille
essive beatinä beateinä
translative beatiksi beateiksi
instructive — beatein
abessive beatittä beateittä
comitative — beateineen

Italian

Etymology

Borrowing from English beat.

Adjective

beat ‎(invariable)

  1. beat (50s US literary and 70s UK music scenes)

Noun

beat m ‎(invariable)

  1. beat (rhythm accompanying music)

Anagrams

Latin

Verb

beat

  1. third-person singular present active indicative of beō

Romanian

Etymology

From Late Latin bibitus ‎(“drunk”), from Latin bibō ‎(“drink”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [be̯at]

Adjective

beat m, n ‎(feminine singular beată, masculine plural beți, feminine and neuter plural bete)

  1. drunk, drunken, intoxicated; tipsy

Declension

Synonyms

Antonyms

  • treaz

Derived terms

Related terms

Volapük

Noun

beat ‎(plural beats)

  1. happiness

Declension

Etymology

From Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan ‎(“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-Germanic *bautaną ‎(“to push, strike”) (compare Low German boten, German boßen, Old Norse bauta), from Proto-Indo-European *bhau- (compare Old Irish fo·botha ‎(“he threatened”), Latin confutō ‎(“I strike down”), fūstis ‎(“stick, club”), Czech bít ‎(“beat”), Albanian bahe ‎(“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Bulgarian бутам ‎(butam, “I beat, knock”), Old Armenian բութ ‎(butʿ)). Compare Occitan batre, French battre.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bēt, IPA(key): /biːt/
  • Homophone: beet
  • Rhymes: -iːt

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