beat Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a regular route for a sentry or policeman
    round.
    • in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name
  2. noun the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
    heartbeat; pulsation; pulse.
    • he could feel the beat of her heart
  3. noun the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music
    rhythm; musical rhythm.
    • the piece has a fast rhythm
    • the conductor set the beat
  4. noun 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
  5. noun a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
    beatnik.
  6. noun the sound of stroke or blow
    • he heard the beat of a drum
  7. noun (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
    metre; cadence; meter; measure.
  8. noun a regular rate of repetition
    • the cox raised the beat
  9. noun a stroke or blow
    • the signal was two beats on the steam pipe
  10. noun the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
  11. verb come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
    shell; trounce; crush; beat out; vanquish.
    • Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship
    • We beat the competition
    • Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game
  12. verb give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
    beat up; work over.
    • Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night
    • The teacher used to beat the students
  13. verb hit repeatedly
    • beat on the door
    • beat the table with his shoe
  14. verb move rhythmically
    pound; thump.
    • Her heart was beating fast
  15. verb shape by beating
    • beat swords into ploughshares
  16. verb make a rhythmic sound
    drum; thrum.
    • Rain drummed against the windshield
    • The drums beat all night
  17. verb glare or strike with great intensity
    • The sun was beating down on us
  18. verb move with a thrashing motion
    flap.
    • The bird flapped its wings
    • The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky
  19. verb sail with much tacking or with difficulty
    • The boat beat in the strong wind
  20. verb stir vigorously
    scramble.
    • beat the egg whites
    • beat the cream
  21. verb 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
  22. verb be superior
    • Reading beats watching television
    • This sure beats work!
  23. verb avoid paying
    bunk.
    • beat the subway fare
  24. verb make a sound like a clock or a timer
    tick; ticktack; ticktock.
    • the clocks were ticking
    • the grandfather clock beat midnight
  25. verb move with a flapping motion
    flap.
    • The bird's wings were flapping
  26. verb indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks
    • Beat the rhythm
  27. verb move with or as if with a regular alternating motion
    pulsate; quiver.
    • the city pulsated with music and excitement
  28. verb make by pounding or trampling
    • beat a path through the forest
  29. verb produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly
    • beat the drum
  30. verb strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
  31. verb beat through cleverness and wit
    outsmart; overreach; outwit; outfox; circumvent.
    • I beat the traffic
    • She outfoxed her competitors
  32. verb be a mystery or bewildering to
    mystify; perplex; bewilder; get; puzzle; pose; amaze; vex; baffle; flummox; stick; stupefy; gravel; nonplus; dumbfound.
    • This beats me!
    • Got me--I don't know the answer!
    • a vexing problem
    • This question really stuck me
  33. verb wear out completely
    wash up; exhaust; tucker; tucker out.
    • This kind of work exhausts me
    • I'm beat
    • He was all washed up after the exam
  34. adjective satellite very tired
    bushed; dead; all in.
    • was all in at the end of the day
    • so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere
    • bushed after all that exercise
    • I'm dead after that long trip

WordNet

Beat transitive verb
Etymology
OE. beaten, beten, AS. beátan; akin to Icel. bauta, OHG. bzan. Cf. 1st Butt, Button.
Wordforms
imperfect Beat; past participle Beat, Beaten ; present participle & verbal noun Beating
Definitions
  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. Syn. -- To strike; pound; bang; buffet; maul; drub; thump; baste; thwack; thrash; pommel; cudgel; belabor; conquer; defeat; vanquish; overcome.
Beat intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blaows; 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.
Beat noun
Definitions
  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, 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 adjective
Definitions
  1. Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted. Colloq.
    Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed. Dickens.

Webster 1913