beat

Less common meanings

11. 11
    exhaustedadjectiveslangUS

    Completely worn out; exhausted.

    By the end of the hike, everyone was totally beat.

    He came home beat after a double shift at the warehouse.

    Similarexhausted, bushed, pooped, drained, knackered

    Oppositefresh, rested, energetic

    Note

    Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) even pushes it into a superlative, 'the beatest time of my life,' though there, broke and hunting for food money, the narrator means beaten down rather than merely tired. That older shade of the word gave the Beat Generation its name. The standard comparison is more beat, most beat. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road, first published in 1957. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel contains the exact quotation, narrated by Sal Paradise, while he is searching for food money. en.wiktionary.org
    • The narrator's poverty and distress support interpreting the word here as beaten down; this is a contextual inference. people.southwestern.edu
    • The older slang sense meaning beaten down contributed to the name Beat Generation. en.wikipedia.org
12. 12
    single blownouncountable

    A single stroke or blow, especially one of a series.

    With each beat of the oars, the boat surged forward.

    The smith brought the hammer down in steady beats.

    Similarstroke, blow, strike

    Note

    The oldest picture in the family is a single blow. Dryden could still write of a creation struck out 'with a careless beat' in The Hind and the Panther (1687). The rhythmic senses grow from blows that come one after another. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Physical striking lies at the historical root of the word family. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Dryden wrote The Hind and the Panther, first published in 1687. celm.folger.edu
    • The quoted phrase occurs in Dryden's description of creation. en.wikisource.org
13. 13
    nouncountable

    A single moment or event in a film, play, or other story that pushes the plot forward or reveals a shift in a character.

    The romance hits all the familiar beats: the meeting, the breakup, the reunion at the airport.

    Her choice to forgive her father is the emotional beat the whole second act builds toward.

    Similarmoment

    Note

    Screenwriters and story editors break a script into beats, and a beat sheet lists them in order, often before any scene is written. Do not confuse it with the scripted pause, the word beat set in parentheses within dialogue to ask an actor for a moment's silence. The story beat is a unit of change; the pause is a unit of timing. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • Beat sheets can precede drafting, but they are also commonly written after a screenplay draft exists. johnaugust.com
14. 14
    verbtransitive

    To exercise something severely, or to puzzle or trouble someone.

    Why beat your brains out over the tax forms when an accountant can sort them out in an hour?

    It beats me how my grandmother remembers the birthdays of all thirty of her grandchildren.

    UsageSet phrases: it beats me (I don't know) and beat your brains out over something.

    Similarbaffle, puzzle, mystify

    Note

    An older one is beat one's head about something, wearing oneself out over a hard subject: John Locke asks why anyone who means neither to be a critic nor to speak or write in Latin should beat his head about its grammar. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The older expression 'beat one's head about something' occurs in Locke's writing about studying Latin grammar. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Locke questions why someone who does not intend to be a critic or to speak or write in Latin should trouble himself over Latin grammar. en.wikisource.org
15. 15
    run-downadjectiveslang

    Worn out and run-down; in poor, shabby condition.

    The apartment came with a beat refrigerator that barely worked.

    Everything in the garage looked beat and forgotten.

    UsageGoes before a noun for things: a beat car, a beat fridge; close to beat-up.

    Similarbattered, shabby, worn, ratty

    Oppositepristine, new

16. 16
    pause (script)nouncountable

    A brief pause written into a play or screenplay for dramatic or comedic effect.

    The director asked for a longer beat before the final line.

    A well-timed beat can turn an ordinary exchange into a laugh.

    UsageActors hold or take a beat before a line.

    Similarpause

    Note

    A scriptwriter's unit of silence. It is written straight into stage and screen directions, often as the bare word itself, to mark a pause long enough for a thought to turn or a joke to land. It is a matter of timing, not a fixed number of seconds.

17. 17
    nouncountable

    A beatnik; a member of the nonconformist Beat Generation of the 1950s.

    A young beat hitchhiked across the country with nothing but a notebook.

    The bar was a favorite haunt for beats and jazz musicians alike.

    Similarbeatnik

    Note

    A shortening of beatnik, or a name drawn straight from the Beat Generation. The generation itself was named from the slang adjective for tired and beaten down, which Kerouac stretched toward beatific. In the plural it names the movement as a group: Adi Rajkovic writes in Beatdom that 'the beats were pioneers with no destination.' Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The noun derives from beatnik or Beat Generation. en.wiktionary.org
    • The generation's name comes from the slang adjective meaning tired or beaten down. en.wikipedia.org
    • Kerouac extended the meaning toward beatific. en.wikipedia.org
    • The article credits Adi Rajkovic as its author. David S. Wills is identified as the person who posted it. beatdom.com
    • The quotation's wording appears in Beatdom. beatdom.com
18. 18
    sound when hitverbintransitive

    To produce a sound on being struck.

    Drums beat and horns blare whenever the winning team parades through the streets.

    Long after midnight, a lone drum was still beating somewhere in the old town.

    Similarsound, resound, ring, boom

19. 19
    announce by drumverbtransitive

    To signal or convey something by striking a drum or surface rhythmically.

    The watchman beat the alarm on his drum to warn the village.

    Performers beat a welcome on hand drums as the guests arrived.

    UsageSet phrase: beat a retreat, now often meaning to leave quickly, as in beat a hasty retreat.

    Similarsound, drum, tap

    Note

    The object here is the message, not the drum: armies beat a retreat or beat reveille, sounding an order for the troops who hear it. What gets beaten is the signal itself. When the drummer calls people to a place instead of naming the signal, the call follows with to, as in beat to quarters. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Armies have used drums to signal retreat. canada.ca
    • Reveille has been sounded on drums. army.gov.au
    • The required response depends on the listener's circumstances and applicable rules; hearing the signal alone does not impose a universal duty to respond. army.mil
    • Beating to quarters summons a ship's crew to their stations. en.wiktionary.org
20. 20
    verbtransitive

    To tread a path or way by walking along it.

    Deer beat a narrow trail along the creek each winter.

    Fishermen had beaten a muddy track through the reeds to the best spot on the lake.

    UsageSet phrases: beat a path to someone's door; off the beaten track, far from busy places.

    Similarwear, tread

    Note

    Here the path is made by the walking: feet or hooves go over the same ground until a way is worn into it. Sir Richard Blackmore's Creation (1712) stretches it to a hard journey, with the poet resolving to "beat my painful way". The past participle keeps the sense alive in the beaten track, a route so well trodden that it is the ordinary one. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Sir Richard Blackmore wrote Creation, first published in 1712. ilab.org
    • Creation contains “beat my painful way”, describing the poet's difficult undertaking through a journey metaphor. web.english.upenn.edu
21. 21
    adjectiveslang

    Dull and uninteresting; tediously boring.

    Honestly, that movie was beat; I almost dozed off halfway through.

    Everyone said the new mall was beat, just empty stores and a sad food court.

    Similarboring, dull, tedious, lame

    Oppositeexciting, interesting

    Note

    Slang for dull, said of an event, a place or a stretch of time. It is easily confused with the "exhausted" adjective, and the subject tells them apart: a person who is beat is tired, while a weekend that is beat is boring.

22. 22
    strike bushesverbtransitive

    To strike water or foliage to drive out game, or to range through woodland in search of it.

    The keepers beat the reeds along the riverbank to drive out the ducks.

    Hunters beat dense thickets to push game toward open ground.

    Similarthrash, scour

    Note

    In the hunting verb, the object is usually the cover, not the quarry. Keepers beat a wood, a reedbed or the water, and the game is what comes out. Robin Jenkins's The Cone-Gatherers (1955) speaks of 'the part of the wood to be beaten for deer', with the animal named after for. The sweep itself is the hunting noun. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The cover is a usual object, but the quarry can also be the object: a published hunting account uses 'drive (beat) the game toward them'. api.pageplace.de
    • Robin Jenkins wrote The Cone-Gatherers, first published in 1955. en.wikipedia.org
    • The novel contains the quoted wording, with deer following 'for'. en.wiktionary.org
23. 23
    game drivenouncountable

    The act of ranging over a stretch of land to drive out game, or the group of people doing so.

    The gamekeeper led the beat across the heather to flush the grouse.

    On the second beat of the morning, the dogs flushed a dozen pheasants from the woods.

    Note

    A hunting word in which the sweep and the sweepers share one name: the beat can be the drive across the ground or the line of people making it. Hedley Peek and Frederick George Aflalo's Encyclopaedia of Sport (1897) shows the line closing in, with bears leaving their holes in the rocks "when the beat is close to them." The striking and tramping itself belongs to the verb of driving out game. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Hedley Peek and Frederick George Aflalo were responsible for Encyclopaedia of Sport. archive.org
    • Volume I, containing this passage, was first published in 1897; its original title page bears that year. archive.org
    • The work describes bears emerging from holes in rocks as the beat approaches, using the exact quoted words. archive.org
24. 24
    verbtransitive

    Of a bird, bat, or insect: to flap its wings up and down in quick strokes, especially when flying.

    Ducks beat their wings hard to lift themselves off the water.

    A dragonfly hovered over the pond, beating its wings so quickly they blurred.

    Similarflap, flutter

25. 25
    noun

    The pulsating interference produced when two tones of almost equal frequency sound together.
26. 26
    verb

    To produce a pulsating sound through alternating loud and soft, as when two tones of nearly equal pitch sound together out of unison.
27. 27
    noundated

    A news story or research finding published ahead of competitors.

    It's a beat on the whole country.

    1898, unknown author, Scribner's Magazine
28. 28
    noundated

    Someone or something that outdoes another or others.
29. 29
    nounobsoleteSouthern US

    An electoral or administrative district within a county, especially in the southern US.
30. 30
    noundated

    A spot that someone visits again and again or regularly hangs around in.
31. 31
    noundatedAustralia

    A public spot where gay men go to look for casual sexual partners, mainly in Australian use.
32. 32
    nounarchaic

    A contemptible person who cheats or swindles others.

    “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.

    1884, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
33. 33
    noun

    In fencing, a sharp knock against the opponent's blade to push it aside or force an opening.
34. 34
    nounslang

    A full face of makeup, especially a polished, carefully applied one.
35. 35
    verb

    To make headway into the wind by zigzagging back and forth across its direction.
36. 36
    verbUK

    To haggle a seller into lowering what they ask, usually with down.
37. 37
    verb

    To be restless, anxious, or unable to decide.
38. 38
    verbdialectalMulticultural London English

    To engage in a sex act with a partner.
39. 39
    verbslang

    To swindle someone or steal from them.
40. 40
    adjective

    Wearing makeup that has been applied flawlessly and to striking effect.
41. 41
    adjectiveslang

    Unattractive, especially of a person's looks.