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Meaning of beat in English

  1. Pronunciation

    /bit/

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  1. Verb

    beat

    Etymology

    Old English bēatan, of Germanic origin

    Definitions

    1. come out better in a competition, race, or conflict

    Examples

    • « Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship »
    • « We beat the competition »
    • « Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game »
  2. 2. give a beating to

    Examples

    • « 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 »
  3. 3. hit repeatedly

    Examples

    • « beat on the door »
    • « beat the table with his shoe »
  4. 4. move rhythmically

    Examples

    • « Her heart was beating fast »
  5. 5. shape by beating

    Examples

    • « beat swords into ploughshares »
  6. 6. make a rhythmic sound

    Examples

    • « Rain drummed against the windshield »
    • « The drums beat all night »
  7. 7. glare or strike with great intensity

    Examples

    • « The sun was beating down on us »
  8. 8. move with a thrashing motion

    Examples

    • « The bird flapped its wings »
    • « The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky »
  9. 9. sail with much tacking or with difficulty

    Examples

    • « The boat beat in the strong wind »
  10. 10. stir vigorously

    Examples

    • « beat the egg whites »
    • « beat the cream »
  11. 11. strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music

    Examples

    • « beat one's breast »
    • « beat one's foot rhythmically »
  12. 12. be superior

    Examples

    • « Reading beats watching television »
    • « This sure beats work! »
  13. 13. avoid paying

    Examples

    • « beat the subway fare »
  14. 14. make a sound like a clock or a timer

    Examples

    • « the clocks were ticking »
    • « the grandfather clock beat midnight »
  15. 15. move with a flapping motion

    Examples

    • « The bird's wings were flapping »
  16. 16. indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks

    Examples

    • « Beat the rhythm »
  17. 17. move with or as if with a regular alternating motion

    Examples

    • « the city pulsated with music and excitement »
  18. 18. make by pounding or trampling

    Examples

    • « beat a path through the forest »
  19. 19. produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly

    Examples

    • « beat the drum »
  20. 20. strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
  21. 21. beat through cleverness and wit

    Examples

    • « I beat the traffic »
    • « She outfoxed her competitors »
  22. 22. be a mystery or bewildering to

    Examples

    • « This beats me! »
    • « Got me--I don't know the answer! »
    • « a vexing problem »
    • « This question really stuck me »
  23. 23. wear out completely

    Examples

    • « This kind of work exhausts me »
    • « I'm beat »
    • « He was all washed up after the exam »
  24. Noun

    beat

    Definitions

    1. a regular route for a sentry or policeman

    Examples

    • « in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name »
  25. 2. the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart

    Examples

    • « he could feel the beat of her heart »
  26. 3. the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music

    Examples

    • « the piece has a fast rhythm »
    • « the conductor set the beat »
  27. 4. a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies

    Examples

    • « has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations »
  28. 5. a member of the beat generation

    Examples

    • « a nonconformist in dress and behavior »
  29. 6. the sound of stroke or blow

    Examples

    • « he heard the beat of a drum »
  30. 7. (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
  31. 8. a regular rate of repetition

    Examples

    • « the cox raised the beat »
  32. 9. a stroke or blow

    Examples

    • « the signal was two beats on the steam pipe »
  33. 10. the act of beating to windward

    Examples

    • « sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing »

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