Beat

[biːt] or [bit]

Definition

(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 sound of stroke or blow; 'he heard the beat of a drum'.

(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 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.) 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.) 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.) 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 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.) avoid paying; 'beat the subway fare'.

(verb.) be superior; 'Reading beats watching television'; 'This sure beats work!'.

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

Editor: Xenia--From WordNet

Definition

(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.

Inputed by Hubert

Synonyms and Synonymous

v. a. [1]. Strike, knock, hit, thump, belabor, drub, maul, pommel, BASTE, thrash, thwack, bang, lay blows upon.[2]. Hammer, forge.[3]. Pound, bruise, pulverize, comminute, bray, break in pieces.[4]. Batter, smite, pelt, dash against.[5]. Conquer, overcome, subdue, vanquish, overpower, defeat, checkmate.[6]. [Colloquial.] Excel, surpass, outdo, cut out.

v. n. [1]. Pulsate, throb.[2]. Dash, strike.[3]. (Naut.) Go against the wind, go a zigzag course.

n. [1]. Stroke, striking, blow.[2]. Pulsation, throb, beating.[3]. Round, course.

Typed by Carla

Synonyms and Antonyms

SYN:Strike, pound, batter, surpass, thrash, cudgel, overcome, defeat, conquer,worst, whack, belabor, vanquish

ANT:Defend, protect, shield, fall, shelter, surrender, stroke, caress, pat

Checker: Shari

Definition

v.t. to strike repeatedly: to break or bruise: to strike as bushes in order to rouse game: to thrash: to overcome: to be too difficult for: to spread flat and thin by beating with a tool as gold by a gold-beater—also To beat out.—v.i. to give strokes repeatedly: to throb: to dash as a flood or storm:—pr.p. beat′ing; pa.t. beat; pa.p. beat′en.—n. a recurrent stroke: a stroke recurring at intervals or its sound as of a watch or the pulse: a round or course as a policeman's beat: a place of resort.—adj. weary: fatigued.—adj. Beat′en made smooth or hard by beating or treading: trite: worn by use.—ns. Beat′er one that beats or strikes: one who rouses or beats up game: a crushing instrument; Beat′ing the act of striking: chastisement by blows: regular pulsation or throbbing: rousing of game: exercising the brain.—Beaten work metal shaped by being hammered on an anvil or block of the necessary shape.—Dead beat completely exhausted.—To beat about the bush to approach a subject in an indirect way; To beat a retreat to retreat originally to beat the drum as a signal for retreat; To beat off to drive back; To beat out to work out fully to make gold or silver leaf out of solid metal; To beat the air to fight to no purpose or against an imaginary enemy; To beat the bounds to trace out the boundaries of a parish in a periodic survey or perambulation certain natural objects in the line of journey being formally struck with a rod and sometimes also the boys whipped to make them remember; To beat the brains to puzzle one's brains about something; To beat the tattoo (mil.) to sound the drum for evening roll-call; To beat up to alarm by a sudden attack: to disturb: to pay an untimeous visit to any one—also in 'to beat up for recruits ' to go about a town to enlist men.

Checked by Joy