beat Definition

beat
verb beat (past tense), beaten (past participle), beat, beating (present participle)

now rare:
1. To hit (a person, animal, etc) violently and repeatedly, especially to harm or punish them.

Thesaurus: batter, hammer, whip, flog, whale (US slang), drub, trounce, (slang) lay into, lick, work over; smite, lash, lambaste, cane.
2. To strike something repeatedly, eg to remove dust or make a sound.
intr
3. To knock or strike repeatedly.

Example: rain beating against the window
Form: beat against something (usually)
Form: beat at something
Form: beat on something
4. To defeat; to do something better, sooner or quicker than someone else.

Example: always beats me at chess
Thesaurus: defeat, overcome, conquer, best, vanquish, surpass, worst; Antonym: succumb to, lose to.
5. To be too difficult to be solved or understood by someone. See also it beats me below.

Example: The last puzzle had me beaten
6. To mix or stir thoroughly.

Example: Beat two eggs in a bowl
Form: beat something up (sometimes)
7a. To make or shape it by repeatedly striking the raw material;

Example: beating out horseshoes on the forge
Form: beat something out (also)
7b. To flatten or reduce the thickness of it by beating.

Form: beat something out (also)
intr
8. To move in a regular pattern of strokes, etc.

Example: heard my heart beating
Thesaurus: pulsate, throb, flutter, palpitate, tremble, quiver, heave, oscillate, quaver, writhe, thrill.
tr & intr
9. To move rhythmically up and down.

Example: tent-flaps beating in the wind
10. To mark or show (musical time or rhythm) with the hand or a baton, etc.

Form: beat time (usually)
Form: beat out time
11. To push, drive or force them or it away.

Form: beat someone or something back (especially)
Form: beat someone or something down off
tr & intr
12. To strike (bushes or trees, etc) to force birds or animals into the open for shooting.

Form: beat up something (also)

noun

1. A regular recurrent stroke, or its sound.

Example: the beat of my heart
Thesaurus: cadence, pulsation, throbbing, pounding, palpitation, flutter, oscillation, undulation.
2a. In music and poetry, etc: the basic pulse, unit of rhythm or accent

Example: two beats to the bar
Thesaurus: stress, accent, division, measure, rhythm, metre, time.
2b. The conductor's stroke of the hand or baton indicating such a pulse

Example: Watch the beat
2c. In popular music: rhythm; a strong rhythmic pulse.
3. A regular or usual course or journey.

Example: a policeman on his beat
4a. In the 1950s and 60s: a member or follower of the beat generation;
4b. A beatnik

adj

(especially US)
1. colloq
Worn out; exhausted.

Derivative: beatable
adj

Derivative: beater
noun

A person or thing that beats in any sense, eg a person who rouses or beats up game for shooting, an electric or hand-operated device for beating, etc. Also in compounds.
Example: egg-beater

Idiom: beat about the bush

To talk tediously about a subject without coming to the main point.
Thesaurus: waffle, ramble, tergiversate.

Idiom: beat a hasty retreat (beat a retreat)

To go away in a hurry, especially in order to escape or avoid an unpleasant or difficult situation. Compare beat the retreat below.

Idiom: beat it

slang
To go away immediately and quickly.

Idiom: beat one's brains (beat one's brains out)

colloq
To puzzle long and hard over something.

Idiom: beat one's breast

To show unrestrained, wild or exaggerated signs of grief.
Thesaurus: repent, apologize, be penitent, be sorry, be remorseful.

Idiom: beat someone's brains out

colloq
To kill or seriously injure them by hitting them about the head.

Idiom: beat someone to it

To manage to do something before they can.
Example: I went back to tidy up, but someone had beaten me to it

Idiom: beat the bounds

(rit)
To perform a traditional ceremony of tracing out the parish boundaries by walking around them, formally striking the boundary stones, etc with willow twigs. See also common-riding.

Idiom: beat the clock

To do or finish something within the time allowed.

Idiom: beat the pants off someone (beat the socks off someone)

colloq
To defeat them thoroughly.

Idiom: beat the rap

(riginally US)
slang
To escape without punishment.

Idiom: beat the retreat

To perform the military ceremony (beating the retreat) consisting of marching and military music, usually performed at dusk, originally marking the recall (by drum beat) of troops to their quarters.

Idiom: Can you beat it? (Can you beat that?)

colloq
As an expression of astonishment: Would you believe it, or that, to be possible, true, etc?

Idiom: dead beat

colloq
Very tired; exhausted.

Idiom: it beats me

colloq
It is beyond my comprehension; I cannot understand it or work it out.

Idiom: off the beaten track

Away from main roads and towns; isolated.

Idiom: you can't beat something

colloq
There is no substitute for it, or nothing better than it.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon beatan.

Phrasal Verb: beat down

Said of the sun: to give out great heat.Said of rain: to fall heavily.

Phrasal Verb: beat someone down

To force them to reduce the price of something by bargaining.

Phrasal Verb: beat something down

To strike it heavily until it collapses.
Example: beat the door down

Phrasal Verb: beat someone off

To check or put a stop to them, or succeed in overcoming them.
Example: Police beat off the protesters

Phrasal Verb: beat someone up

To punch, kick or hit them severely and repeatedly.

Phrasal Verb: beat up on someone

Beat someone up