# beat up

Pronunciation: say "beet-UP" US /ˌbit ˈʌp/, UK /ˌbiːt ˈʌp/

## Phrasal verb

1. To assault someone violently with repeated blows, giving them a severe beating.
   - Simple: To hit someone again and again and hurt them badly.
   - _A gang of teenagers beat up a delivery driver and stole his bike._
   - _He got badly beaten up outside a bar and spent two nights in the hospital._
2. To blame oneself harshly and feel very guilty over or about something.
   - Simple: To feel very guilty and blame yourself for something.
   - _He's still beating himself up over the penalty he missed in the final._
   - _Parents often beat themselves up about choices that were never really theirs to make._
4. To cause injuries like those of a severe beating, but by some other means, such as a fall or crash.
   - Simple: To hurt someone or yourself badly, as if in a fight, but in another way, like a fall.
   - _The rider was thrown into a fence and beat himself up badly enough to spend a week in the hospital._
   - _Ten hours of pounding waves beat up the crew, leaving everyone bruised and sore._
5. To make someone feel very guilty by blaming them harshly for something.
   - Simple: To make someone feel very guilty by blaming them for something.
   - _Don't let your in-laws beat you up over skipping Thanksgiving this year._
   - _My father still beats me up over the time I wrecked his car, twenty years later._
8. To sail into the wind by making a series of alternate tacks across it.
   - Simple: To sail a boat toward the wind by turning one way and then the other, again and again.
   - _With the breeze dead ahead, the schooner beat up toward the harbor mouth for most of the afternoon._
   - _We spent three hours beating up against a stiff northerly before we reached the anchorage._
10. To wake up earlier than another person does.
   - Simple: To wake up earlier than someone else.
   - _I set two alarms so I could beat my roommate up and get the first shower._
   - _However early I get up, my grandmother has beaten me up and is already out walking the dog._
12. To bomb a military target or targets again and again. *(dialectal, WW2 air pilots' usage)*
   - Simple: To drop bombs on the same enemy place again and again.
   - _Night after night the squadron beat up the rail yards until no train could move through them._
   - _The pilots were told to keep beating up the coastal guns until the landing craft were ashore._

## Adjective · beat-up

Pronunciation: say "BEET-up" US /ˈbit ˌʌp/, UK /ˈbiːt ˌʌp/

3. Worn out from heavy use and in poor condition; battered by time and wear. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Old, damaged, and in bad shape from a lot of use.
   - _She learned to play on a beat-up guitar she found at a yard sale._
   - _The paperback was so beat-up that half the pages had come loose._

## Noun

Pronunciation: say "BEET-up" US /ˈbit ˌʌp/, UK /ˈbiːt ˌʌp/

6. A beating, or a rough hazing given to a newcomer.
   - Simple: A time when someone is beaten, or treated roughly as a new member of a group.
   - _Senior cadets used to give the first-years a beat up on their first night at the academy._
   - _Witnesses told police the beat up lasted several minutes before anyone stepped in._
7. An alarm or outcry that is artificially or dishonestly stirred up, especially by or through the media. *(Australia, New Zealand, UK)*
   - Simple: A fuss or scare that is stirred up on purpose, often by newspapers or TV.
   - _Ministers dismissed reports of a crisis in the hospitals as a tabloid beat up designed to sell papers._
   - _People in the town are tired of media beat ups that paint them as lawless._
9. Someone who has been beaten up, or something that has been battered in the same way.
   - Simple: A person who has been beaten up, or a thing that has been badly damaged by hard use.
11. A military raid on an enemy position or target. *(slang, UK)*
   - Simple: A sudden attack by soldiers on an enemy place.
   - _Their orders were to make a beat up on the supply dump at night and slip back into the desert._
   - _After the third beat up in a week, the enemy doubled the guard on every fuel depot._
15. A tree planted in a plantation later than the others around it.
   - Simple: A young tree planted later than the rest in a planted forest.
   - _A dry summer killed many seedlings, and the gaps were filled with beat ups the following winter._
   - _Foresters noted that each beat up was still a meter shorter than its older neighbors._

## Phrasal verb

13. To disturb someone, or to call on them at an untimely hour. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To bother someone, or to visit them at a bad time.
   - _A party of cousins beat up the household on Christmas Eve, long after everyone had gone to bed._
   - _Forgive me for beating you up at this hour, but the news could not wait until morning._
14. To go about energetically in search of helpers or participants for an undertaking. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To go around working hard to find helpers or people to join something.
   - _The sergeant was sent into the farming towns to beat up for recruits._
   - _The organizers beat up for helpers all over the parish before the harvest supper._
16. To attack an enemy suddenly, or to throw them into alarm. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To attack people suddenly, or to frighten them.
   - _Before first light the cavalry beat up the enemy's quarters, scattering men who had been asleep minutes earlier._
   - _Raiders beat up the garrison twice that winter, and the town lived in constant fear._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/beat-up (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).