Beat can mean “hit repeatedly,” “stir vigorously,” or “defeat.” A beat can also be a rhythmic pulse, a physical blow, or a funky poet. In terms of number of definitions, it’s hard to beat this little word.
To strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon;
Noun
the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
Noun
a stroke or blow; "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe"
Noun
a regular rate of repetition; "the cox raised the beat"
Noun
the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music; "the piece has a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat"
Noun
(prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
Noun
the sound of stroke or blow; "he heard the beat of a drum"
Noun
the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart; "he could feel the beat of her heart"
Noun
a regular route for a sentry or policeman; "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name"
Noun
a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
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
Verb
wear out completely; "This kind of work exhausts me"; "I''m beat"; "He was all washed up after the exam"
Verb
be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don''t know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me"
Verb
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"
Verb
beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors"
Verb
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"
Verb
hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe"
Verb
strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
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"
Verb
stir vigorously; "beat the egg whites"; "beat the cream"
Verb
shape by beating; "beat swords into ploughshares"
Verb
produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly; "beat the drum"
Verb
make by pounding or trampling; "beat a path through the forest"
Verb
move with or as if with a regular alternating motion; "the city pulsated with music and excitement"
Verb
move rhythmically; "Her heart was beating fast"
Verb
indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm"
Verb
sail with much tacking or with difficulty; "The boat beat in the strong wind"
Verb
move with a flapping motion; "The bird''s wings were flapping"
Verb
move with a thrashing motion; "The bird flapped its wings"; "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky"
Verb
glare or strike with great intensity; "The sun was beating down on us"
Verb
make a rhythmic sound; "Rain drummed against the windshield"; "The drums beat all night"
Verb
make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight"
Verb
avoid paying; "beat the subway fare"
Verb
be superior; "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work!"
imp.
of Beat
p. p.
of Beat
v. t.
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.
v. t.
To punish by blows; to thrash.
v. t.
To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the
noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game.
v. t.
To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.
v. t.
To tread, as a path.
v. t.
To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game,
etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.
v. t.
To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with
out.
v. t.
To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
v. t.
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.
v. i.
To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock
vigorously or loudly.
v. i.
To move with pulsation or throbbing.
v. i.
To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force;
to strike anything, as, rain, wind, and waves do.
v. i.
To be in agitation or doubt.
v. i.
To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag
line or traverse.
v. i.
To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
v. i.
To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the
drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
v. i.
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.
n.
A stroke; a blow.
n.
A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the
heart; the beat of the pulse.
n.
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.
n.
A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it
is intended to ornament.
n.
A sudden swelling or reenforcement 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.
v. i.
A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a
watchman's beat.
v. i.
A place of habitual or frequent resort.
v. i.
A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; -- often
emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat.
a.
Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted.
Beat
Thou shalt beat some of it [spices] very small.
They did beat the gold into thin plates.2.
To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey.4.
A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.5.
Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way.6.
He beat them in a bloody battle.
For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that.7.
Why should any one . . . beat his head about the Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?9.
Beat
The men of the city . . . beat at the door.2.
A thousand hearts beat happily.3.
Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below.
They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wisbed in himself to die.
Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.4.
To still my beating mind.. 5.
Beat
He, with a careless beat, Struck out the mute creation at a heat.2.
Beat
Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed.
To strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon;
To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blaows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
A stroke; a blow.
Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted.
Usage Examples
Before now, I've always taken my mixes out to the car and listened to them in the parking lot. I still do that, but more so now I'm listening to it on the Beat box, and I think people should give it at least a listen and check it out and see what it is.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
A friend said to me, 'Be glad for your troubles - they strengthen you.' Well, if that's the truth, I'm going to be so strong they'll have to beat me to death!
Being the lead of the show and working a lot of hours - all good stuff, a tremendous education, incredible opportunity, it changed my life - it was a marathon, and by the end of it I was pretty beat.
And what is liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties - liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, or labor, or trade?
Historically, musicians know what it is like to be outside the norm - walking the high wire without a safety net. Our experience is not so different from those who march to the beat of different drummers.
AP promoted me to the White House beat because I knew Clinton, his family, friends, and staff better than anybody in the national press corps. Those contacts helped me break a few stories and get my career in Washington jump-started.
Getting pregnant wasn't easy, and I found that devastating. I really beat myself up for waiting so long when I'd always wanted children and family had been the basis of my happiness my whole life.
Misspelled Formbeat, vbeat, gbeat, hbeat, nbeat, beat, veat, geat, heat, neat, eat, bveat, bgeat, bheat, bneat, b eat, bweat, b3eat, b4eat, breat, bseat, bdeat, bwat, b3at, b4at, brat, bsat, bdat, bewat, be3at, be4at, berat, besat, bedat, beqat, bewat, besat, bezat, beqt, bewt, best, bezt, beaqt, beawt, beast, beazt, beart, bea5t, bea6t, beayt, beagt, bear, bea5, bea6, beay, beag, beatr, beat5, beat6, beaty, beatg.
Other Usage ExamplesBut in my imagination this whole thing developed and I started mixing up old folk songs with the Beatles beat and taking them down to Greenwich Village and playing them for the people there.
Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.
Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.
Ever since I was a little kid, I've felt comfortable in a suit. It all started when my mom bought me a three-piece Pierre Cardin suit. I wore that thing everywhere. Eventually I realized I was going to be the kid who got beat up in school, but I kept wearing it.
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
I believe it is in my nature to dance by virtue of the beat of my heart, the pulse of my blood and the music in my mind.
From my music training, I knew that, some Spanish rhythms apart, 5/4 is a time signature used only in the modern era. Holst's Mars from the Planets is 5/4. But if you speak lines of poetry in that pattern you just end up hitting the off-beats. It's only when you add a rest - a sixth beat - that it sounds as it surely should sound.
Bobby Knight told me this: 'There is nothing that a good defense cannot beat a better offense.' In other words a good offense wins.
For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.
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