Pronunciations (2)
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/biːt/
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/bɛt/
Pronunciation notes
- often
- proscribed
Noun
A stroke; a blow.
- Examples
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He, […]with a careless beat, / Struck out the mute creation at a heat.
A pulsation or throb.
- Examples
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a beat of the heart
the beat of the pulse
More examples (1)
With each beat, your heart's left ventricle pumps blood into your arteries, which are all different sizes.
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.
A rhythm.
- Examples
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I love watching her dance to a pretty drum beat with a bouncy rhythm!
A rhythm. The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency.
A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
An area of a person's responsibility, especially The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.
Usage- broadly
- Examples
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to walk the beat
More examples (3)
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.
[…]the rise of embedding police into schools – so-called School Resource Officers (SROs), who are employed by the local police, but whose “beat” is a school. Those officers report to the local police department and not the school, and can, and frequently do, have different priorities.
"We are looking at being able to fly [drones] tens of miles from base, which is going to make a huge difference. It is the equivalent of having bobbies on the beat."
An area of a person's responsibility, especially The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
Usage- broadly
- Synonyms
- Examples
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As an adult, I became a journalist whose beat is the environment. In a way, I’ve turned my youthful preoccupations into a profession.
An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
Usage- Dated
- Examples
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It's a beat on the whole country.
That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.
Usage- Colloquial
- Dated
- Examples
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the beat of him
A precinct.
Usage- Southern-US
- Dated
- Obsolete
A place of habitual or frequent resort.
Usage- Dated
A place of habitual or frequent resort. An area frequented by gay men in search of sexual activity. See gay beat.
Usage- Australia
- Dated
A low cheat or swindler.
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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a dead beat
More examples (1)
“If I get away I sha’n’t be here,” I says, “to prove these rapscallions ain’t your uncles, and I couldn’t do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that’s all, though that’s worth something.
The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
- Examples
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Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them.
A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
A makeup look; compare beat one's face.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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She made sure to give fans all the details about her beat in the caption.
Verb
To hit; to strike.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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As soon as she heard that her father had died, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.
More examples (4)
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 […]
The case of a woman named Qu Hua from Qiqihaer, Heilongjiang, illustrates this possibility. She married a worker named Xu Baocheng in 1980, and they got along very well until she gave birth to a girl. Then Xu immediately began to beat Qu, and forced her and the baby to live in a small shack.
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.
The attack also afforded Helena to a front-seat view of literal air-to-air melee combat, as one Wildcat pilot of the Cactus Air Force, who was swooping in to help break up the attack, found himself out of machine-gun ammo; instead, he dropped his landing gear, positioned himself above the nearest bomber, and begun beating it to death, in midair, using his landing gear as clubs. After a bit of evasive action that the fighter easily kept up with, the repeated slamming broke something important, and the bomber spiralled down into the sea.
To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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[…] the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door […]
The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
More examples (3)
This public envy, seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings, and estates themselves.
Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below.
What tale do the roaring ocean, / And the nightwind, bleak and wild, / As they beat at the crazy casement, / Tell to that little child?
To move with pulsation or throbbing.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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A thousand hearts beat happily.
O heart, how fares it with thee now, That thou should’st fail from thy desire, Who scarcely darest to inquire, ‘What is it makes me beat so low?’
To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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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.
More examples (2)
I just can't seem to beat the last level of this video game.
There's nothing in this world beats a 52 Vincent and a red-headed girl.
To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
Usage- Intransitive
To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The part of the wood to be beaten for deer sloped all the way from the roadside to the loch.
To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
- Examples
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Beat the eggs and whip the cream.
To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
Usage- UK usage
- Transitive
- in haggling for a price of a buyer
- Synonyms
- Examples
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He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
To indicate by beating or drumming.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters
To tread, as a path.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
While I this unexampled task essay, / Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way, / Celestial Dove! divine assistance bring, / Sustain me on thy strong-extended wing,
To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
I know not why any one should waste his time, and beat his head about the Latin grammar, who does not intend to be a critick, or make speeches, and write dispatches in it.
To be in agitation or doubt.
- Examples
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to still my beating mind
To make a sound when struck.
- Examples
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The drums beat.
To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and lesser intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations not perfectly in unison.
To arrive at a place before someone.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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He beat me there.
The place is empty; we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch.
To have sexual intercourse.
Usage- Multicultural-London-English
- Intransitive
- Slang
- Vulgar
- Examples
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Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat.
More examples (1)
Millie B gets ten shags a week. New day, different guy, that's just peek. You can't name a guy that you haven't tried to beat. You can't name a guy that you haven't tried to beat.
To rob; to cheat or scam.
Usage- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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He beat me out of 12 bucks last night.
I already beat him, but he hasn't realized it yet.
More examples (1)
When one of 'em runs up a bill here, then goes off and deals somewhere else, and dodges me every time he sees me, that's the man I'm after with a sharp stick. [...] Honest people often get into tight places, and we would rather help 'em than hurt 'em then. But some just try to beat you.
Verb
simple past tense of beat
Adjective
Exhausted.
Usage- US usage
- Slang
- Examples
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After the long day, she was feeling completely beat.
I stayed in San Francisco a week and had the beatest time of my life. Marylou and I walked around for miles, looking for food-money.
Dilapidated, beat up.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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Dude, you drive a beat car like that and you ain’t gonna get no honeys.
Having impressively attractive makeup.
- Examples
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Her face was beat for the gods!
Boring.
Usage- Slang
Ugly.
Usage- Slang
- of a person
Noun
A beatnik.
- Examples
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The beats were pioneers with no destination, changing the world one impulse at a time.
Adjective
Relating to the Beat Generation.
- Examples
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beat poetry
Adjective
very tired
- Examples
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was all in at the end of the day
so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere
More examples (2)
bushed after all that exercise
I'm dead after that long trip
Noun
a regular route for a sentry or policeman
- Synonyms
- Examples
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in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name
the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he could feel the beat of her heart
the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the piece has a fast rhythm
the conductor set the beat
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
- Broader terms
a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
the sound of stroke or blow
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he heard the beat of a drum
(prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
- Broader terms
a regular rate of repetition
- Examples
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the cox raised the beat
a stroke or blow
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the signal was two beats on the steam pipe
the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
- Broader terms
Verb
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
- Examples
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Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship
We beat the competition
More examples (1)
Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game
give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
- Examples
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Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night
The teacher used to beat the students
hit repeatedly
- Broader terms
- Examples
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beat on the door
beat the table with his shoe
move rhythmically
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Her heart was beating fast
shape by beating
- Examples
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beat swords into ploughshares
make a rhythmic sound
- Examples
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Rain drummed against the windshield
He drummed his fingers on the table
glare or strike with great intensity
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The sun was beating down on us
move with a thrashing motion
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The bird flapped its wings
The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky
sail with much tacking or with difficulty
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The boat beat in the strong wind
stir vigorously
- Synonyms
- Examples
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beat the egg whites
beat the cream
strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music
- Broader terms
- Examples
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beat one's breast
beat one's foot rhythmically
be superior
- Examples
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Reading beats watching television
This sure beats work!
avoid paying
- Synonyms
- Examples
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beat the subway fare
make a sound like a clock or a timer
- Examples
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the clocks were ticking
the grandfather clock beat midnight
move with a flapping motion
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The bird's wings were flapping
indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks
- Examples
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Beat the rhythm
move with or as if with a regular alternating motion
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the city pulsated with music and excitement
make by pounding or trampling
- Examples
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beat a path through the forest
produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly
- Broader terms
- Examples
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beat the drum
strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
beat through cleverness and wit
- Examples
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I beat the traffic
She outfoxed her competitors
be a mystery or bewildering to
- Examples
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This beats me!
Got me — I don't know the answer!
More examples (2)
a vexing problem
This question really stuck me
wear out completely
- Synonyms
- Examples
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This kind of work exhausts me
I'm beat
More examples (1)
He was all washed up after the exam