beat

Etymology 1

From Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to hit, strike”). Compare Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“I strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʿ)).

noun

1. A stroke; a blow.
2. A pulsation or throb.
   a beat of the heart
   the beat of the pulse
3. (music) 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.
4. A rhythm.
   I love watching her dance to a pretty drum beat with a bouncy rhythm!
   1. (music) The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
5. The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
6. The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency
7. (authorship) A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
8. (by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially
   1. The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.
      to walk the beat
      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. 1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 3, in A Study in Scarlet
      […]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. 29-01-2019, Mike Masnick, “How My High School Destroyed An Immigrant Kid's Life Because He Drew The School's Mascot”, in Techdirt
   2. (journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
      As an adult, I became a journalist whose beat is the environment. In a way, I’ve turned my youthful preoccupations into a profession. 2020 April, Elizabeth Kolbert, “Why we won't avoid a climate catastrophehttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/04/why-we-wont-avoid-a-climate-catastrophe-feature/”, in National Geographic
9. (dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
   It's a beat on the whole country. 1898, unknown author, Scribner's Magazine, volume 24
10. (colloquial, dated) That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.
    the beat of him
11. (dated or obsolete, Southern US) A precinct.
12. (dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
    1. (Australia) An area frequented by gay men in search of sexual activity. See gay beat.
13. (archaic) A low cheat or swindler.
    a dead beat
14. (hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
    Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them. 1911, Hedley Peek, Frederick George Aflalo, Encyclopaedia of Sport
15. (fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
16. (slang) A makeup look; compare beat one's face.
    She made sure to give fans all the details about her beat in the caption. 2018, Leah Prinzivalli, “Kylie Jenner Shared a Sneak Peek of Her New Kylie Cosmetics Blush on Instagram”, in Allure

verb

1. (transitive) To hit; to strike.
   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.
   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 […] 1825?, “Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder”, in The Newgate Calendar: comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters, page 231
   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. 1988, Emily Honig, Gail Hershatter, “Divorce”, in Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980's, Stanford, Cali.: Stanford University Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 219
   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. 21 August 2012, Ed Pilkington, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian
   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. 10 March 2021, Drachinifel, 5:50 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 2022-10-17
2. (transitive) To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
   He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
3. (intransitive) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
   This public envy, seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings, and estates themselves. 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Envy”, in Essayes
   Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below. 1662-01-01, John Dryden, To the Lord Chancellor Hyde, line 144
   What tale do the roaring ocean, / And the nightwind, bleak and wild, / As they beat at the crazy casement, / Tell to that little child? 1850, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Twilight”, in The Seaside and the Fireside
4. (intransitive) To move with pulsation or throbbing.
   A thousand hearts beat happily. 1812–18, George Gordon Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 3, verse 21
5. (transitive) To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
   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.
   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. 1991, Richard Thompson (lyrics and music), “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”
6. (intransitive, nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
7. (transitive) To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
   The part of the wood to be beaten for deer sloped all the way from the roadside to the loch. 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 81
8. To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
   Beat the eggs and whip the cream.
9. (transitive, UK, in haggling for a price of a buyer) To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
   He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
10. (transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.
    to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters
11. To tread, as a path.
    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, 1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem, book 1
12. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
    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. 1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
13. To be in agitation or doubt.
14. To make a sound when struck.
    The drums beat.
15. (military, intransitive) To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
    The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
16. 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.
17. (transitive) To arrive at a place before someone.
    He beat me there.
    The place is empty, we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch.
18. (intransitive, MLE, MTE, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse.
    Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat.
    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. 2017-02-08, “Big (Millie B reply)”performed by Sophie Aspin
19. (transitive, slang) To rob.
    He beat me out of 12 bucks last night.
    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. 1900, Fame, quoting Retail Trade Advocate, page 472

Etymology 2

From Middle English bet (simple past of beten "to beat"), from Old English bēot (simple past of bēatan "to beat"). Middle English bet would regularly yield *beet; the modern form is influenced by the present stem and the past participle beaten. Pronunciations with /ɛ/ (from Middle English bette, alternative simple past of beten) are possibly analogous to read (/ɹɛd/), led, met, etc.

verb

1. simple past tense of beat
2. (especially colloquial) past participle of beat

adj

1. (US slang) Exhausted.
   After the long day, she was feeling completely beat.
2. Dilapidated, beat up.
   Dude, you drive a beat car like that and you ain’t gonna get no honeys.
3. (African-American Vernacular and gay slang) Having impressively attractive makeup.
   Her face was beat for the gods!
4. (slang) Boring.
5. (slang, of a person) Ugly.

Etymology 3

From beatnik, or beat generation.

noun

1. A beatnik.
   The beats were pioneers with no destination, changing the world one impulse at a time. 2008 March, David Wills, Beatdom, number 3

adj

1. Relating to the Beat Generation.
   beat poetry