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beat

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.

Along with its many definitions, beat is featured in a wide variety of idioms. If someone tells you to "beat it," he wants you to go away. If you "beat around the bush," you're not getting to the point. If you "beat the clock," you finish something just in time. One thing beat is not, however, is a nutritious, red root. That's a beet.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: beat

1	v n	hit repeatedly a stroke or blow
2	v	come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
3	v adj	wear out completely very tired
4	v	be a mystery or bewildering to
5	n	a regular route for a sentry or policeman
6	n	a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
7	v n	sail with much tacking or with difficulty the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: beat

v hit repeatedly

“beat on the door”

“beat the table with his shoe”

Types:: show 9 types...; hide 9 types...; full
beat for the purpose of cleaning and thickening; beetle
beat with a beetle; bastinado
beat somebody on the soles of the feet; coldcock, deck, dump, floor, knock down
knock down with force; whang
beat with force; paste
hit with the fists; thrash, thresh
beat the seeds out of a grain; hammer
beat with or as if with a hammer; sledge, sledgehammer
beat with a sledgehammer

Type of:: strike
deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon

v 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”

Synonyms:: beat up, work over

Types:: show 18 types...; hide 18 types...; strong-arm
use physical force against; soak
beat severely; pistol-whip
beat with a pistol; belabor, belabour
beat soundly; rough up
treat violently; flog, lash, lather, slash, strap, trounce, welt, whip
beat severely with a whip or rod; cane, flog, lambast, lambaste
beat with a cane; kayo, knock cold, knock out
knock unconscious or senseless; flail, lam, thrash, thresh
give a thrashing to; beat hard; baste, batter, clobber
strike violently and repeatedly; larrup, paddle, spank
give a spanking to; subject to a spanking; flagellate, scourge
whip; leather
whip with a leather strap; horsewhip
whip with a whip intended for horses; switch
flog with or as if with a flexible rod; cowhide
flog with a cowhide; cat
beat with a cat-o'-nine-tails; birch
whip with a birch twig

v produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly

“beat the drum”

Type of:: play
perform music on (a musical instrument)

v 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”

Type of:: strike
deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon

v move rhythmically

“Her heart was beating fast”

Synonyms:: pound, thump

Types:: show 4 types...; hide 4 types...; pulsate, pulse, throb
expand and contract rhythmically; beat rhythmically; flutter, palpitate
beat rapidly; thrash
beat so fast that (the heart's) output starts dropping until (it) does not manage to pump out blood at all; flap
move noisily

Type of:: move
move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion

v make a rhythmic sound

“The drums beat all night”

Synonyms:: drum, thrum

Type of:: go, sound
make a certain noise or sound

v move with or as if with a regular alternating motion

Synonyms:: pulsate, quiver

: pulsate, pulse, throb
expand and contract rhythmically; beat rhythmically

Type of:: move
move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion

v indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks

“Beat the rhythm”

Synonyms: pound, thump
move rhythmically; drum, thrum
make a rhythmic sound

Types:: beat out, tap out, thump out
beat out a rhythm

v move with a thrashing motion

“The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky”

Synonyms:: flap

: flap
move with a flapping motion

Types:: flutter
flap the wings rapidly or fly with flapping movements; bate
flap the wings wildly or frantically; used of falcons; clap
cause to strike the air in flight

Type of:: displace, move
cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense

v move with a flapping motion

Synonyms:: flap

: flap
move with a thrashing motion

Types:: flail, thresh
move like a flail; thresh about; clap
strike the air in flight

Type of:: move
move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion

v stir vigorously

“beat the egg whites”

“beat the cream”

Synonyms:: scramble

Types:: whip, whisk
whip with or as if with a wire whisk; cream
make creamy by beating

Type of:: agitate, commove, disturb, raise up, shake up, stir up, vex
change the arrangement or position of

v glare or strike with great intensity

“The sun was beating down on us”

Type of:: glare
shine intensely

v make a sound like a clock or a timer

“the grandfather clock beat midnight”

Synonyms:: tick, ticktack, ticktock

Type of:: go, sound
make a certain noise or sound

v shape by beating

“beat swords into ploughshares”

Types:: forge, hammer
create by hammering; foliate
hammer into thin flat foils; dropforge
forge with a dropforge

Type of:: forge, form, mold, mould, shape, work
make something, usually for a specific function

v make by pounding or trampling

“beat a path through the forest”

Type of:: create, make
make or cause to be or to become

v strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting

n a stroke or blow

“the signal was two beats on the steam pipe”

Type of:: stroke
a single complete movement

n the sound of stroke or blow

“he heard the beat of a drum”

Type of:: sound
the sudden occurrence of an audible event

n a regular rate of repetition

“the cox raised the beat”

Type of:: pace, rate
the relative speed of progress or change

n the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart

“he could feel the beat of her heart”

Synonyms:: heartbeat, pulsation, pulse

Types:: show 4 types...; hide 4 types...; diastole
the widening of the chambers of the heart between two contractions when the chambers fill with blood; systole
the contraction of the chambers of the heart (especially the ventricles) to drive blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery; pounding, throb, throbbing
an instance of rapid strong pulsation (of the heart); extrasystole
a premature systole resulting in a momentary cardiac arrhythmia

Type of:: periodic event, recurrent event
an event that recurs at intervals

n the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music

“the conductor set the beat”

Synonyms:: musical rhythm, rhythm

Types:: show 4 types...; hide 4 types...; backbeat
a loud steady beat; downbeat
the first beat of a musical measure (as the conductor's arm moves downward); offbeat, upbeat
an unaccented beat (especially the last beat of a measure); syncopation
a musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat

Type of:: musical time
(music) the beat of musical rhythm

n (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse

Synonyms:: cadence, measure, meter, metre

Types:: show 11 types...; hide 11 types...; catalexis
the absence of a syllable in the last foot of a line or verse; scansion
analysis of verse into metrical patterns; common measure, common meter
the usual (iambic) meter of a ballad; foot, metrical foot, metrical unit
(prosody) a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm; dactyl
a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables; iamb, iambus
a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables; anapaest, anapest
a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables; amphibrach
a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed-unstressed syllables (e.g., `remember'); trochee
a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed syllables; spondee
a metrical unit with stressed-stressed syllables; dibrach, pyrrhic
a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed syllables

Type of:: poetic rhythm, prosody, rhythmic pattern
(prosody) a system of versification

n 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

Type of:: oscillation, vibration
(physics) a regular periodic variation in value about a mean

v come out better in a competition, race, or conflict

“Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship”

“We beat the competition”

Synonyms:: beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish

: circumvent, outfox, outsmart, outwit, overreach
beat through cleverness and wit

Types:: show 40 types...; hide 40 types...; outpoint, outscore
score more points than one's opponents; walk over
beat easily; eliminate
remove from a contest or race; mop up, pip, rack up, whip, worst
defeat thoroughly; whomp
beat overwhelmingly; get the best, have the best, overcome
overcome, usually through no fault or weakness of the person that is overcome; rout, spread-eagle, spreadeagle
defeat disastrously; get the jump
be there first; cheat, chicane, chouse, jockey, screw, shaft
defeat someone through trickery or deceit; exceed, outdo, outgo, outmatch, outperform, outstrip, surmount, surpass
be or do something to a greater degree; get over, master, overcome, subdue, surmount
get on top of; deal with successfully; best, outdo, outflank, scoop, trump
get the better of; outfight
to fight better than; get the better of; overmaster, overpower, overwhelm
overcome by superior force; checkmate, mate
place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game; immobilise, immobilize
make defenseless; outplay
excel or defeat in a game; bat, clobber, cream, drub, lick, thrash
beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight; circumvent, outfox, outsmart, outwit, overreach
beat through cleverness and wit; outgrow
grow faster than; outcry, outshout
shout louder than; outroar
roar louder than; outsail
sail faster or better than; outdraw
draw a gun faster, or best someone in a gunfight; outsell
sell more than others; outsell
be sold more often than other, similar products; outpace
surpass in speed; better, break
surpass in excellence; outshine
attract more attention and praise than others; outrange
have a greater range than (another gun); outweigh
be heavier than; outbrave
be braver than; out-herod
surpass someone in cruelty or evil; outfox
outdo someone in trickery; shame
surpass or beat by a wide margin; bulldog
throw a steer by seizing the horns and twisting the neck, as in a rodeo; outmaneuver, outmanoeuvre, outsmart
defeat by more skillful maneuvering; steamroll, steamroller
overwhelm by using great force; outmarch
march longer distances and for a longer time than; outwear
last longer than others

Type of:: defeat, get the better of, overcome
win a victory over

v beat through cleverness and wit

“I beat the traffic”

Synonyms:: circumvent, outfox, outsmart, outwit, overreach

: beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict

Type of:: exceed, outdo, outgo, outmatch, outperform, outstrip, surmount, surpass
be or do something to a greater degree

v be superior

“Reading beats watching television”

“This sure beats work!”

Type of:: be
have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)

v avoid paying

“beat the subway fare”

Synonyms:: bunk

Type of:: cheat, chisel, rip off
deprive somebody of something by deceit

v wear out completely

“I'm beat”

Synonyms:: exhaust, tucker, tucker out, wash up

Types:: frazzle
exhaust physically or emotionally; play
exhaust by allowing to pull on the line; kill
tire out completely

Type of:: fag, fag out, fatigue, jade, outwear, tire, tire out, wear, wear down, wear out, wear upon, weary
exhaust or get tired through overuse or great strain or stress

adj very tired

“so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere”

Synonyms:: all in, bushed, dead

: tired
depleted of strength or energy

v be a mystery or bewildering to

“This beats me!”

Synonyms:: amaze, baffle, bewilder, dumbfound, flummox, get, gravel, mystify, nonplus, perplex, pose, puzzle, stick, stupefy, vex

Types:: show 4 types...; hide 4 types...; mix up, stump
cause to be perplexed or confounded; riddle
set a difficult problem or riddle; elude, escape
be incomprehensible to; escape understanding by; defy, refuse, resist
elude, especially in a baffling way

Type of:: bedevil, befuddle, confound, confuse, discombobulate, fox, fuddle, throw
be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly

n a regular route for a sentry or policeman

“in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name”

Synonyms:: round

Type of:: itinerary, path, route
an established line of travel or access

n a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior

Synonyms:: beatnik

Type of:: nonconformist, recusant
someone who refuses to conform to established standards of conduct

v sail with much tacking or with difficulty

“The boat beat in the strong wind”

Type of:: sail
travel on water propelled by wind

n the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing

Type of:: sailing
riding in a sailboat

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