# beat

Pronunciation: say "BEET" /biːt/

## Verb

1. To defeat someone or overcome something, or to do better than a rival, a record, or an earlier result.
   - Simple: To win against someone, get past a problem, or do better than someone or something.
   - _Few runners can beat her over long distances._
   - _They beat the defending champions in the final._
2. To hit a person, animal, or thing repeatedly, often hard or in a rhythm, as with a stick or on a drum.
   - Simple: To hit someone or something again and again, such as a person or a drum.
   - _Guards used to beat prisoners who broke the rules._
   - _The bully beat the smaller boy until teachers intervened._
4. To move with a regular pulsation or throbbing.
   - Simple: To move with a steady throb, like a heart.
   - _His pulse beat steadily under the doctor's fingers._
   - _She could feel her heart beat against her ribs._
6. To mix food rapidly, blending the ingredients with quick strokes.
   - Simple: To mix food quickly with fast strokes.
   - _Beat the cream until it forms soft peaks._
   - _He beat the eggs and sugar together for the cake._
7. To reach a destination earlier than another person.
   - Simple: To get to a place before someone else does.
   - _He beat the courier to the office and signed for the package himself._
   - _If we leave now, we can beat the crowds to the gallery._
14. To exercise something severely, or to puzzle or trouble someone.
   - Simple: To make the mind work very hard, or to confuse or worry 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._
18. To produce a sound on being struck.
   - Simple: To make a sound after being hit.
   - _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._
19. To signal or convey something by striking a drum or surface rhythmically.
   - Simple: To show something by hitting a drum or surface in a pattern.
   - _The watchman beat the alarm on his drum to warn the village._
   - _Performers beat a welcome on hand drums as the guests arrived._
20. To tread a path or way by walking along it.
   - Simple: To walk along a path or way, pressing it down with your feet.
   - _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._
22. To strike water or foliage to drive out game, or to range through woodland in search of it.
   - Simple: To hit bushes or water to scare animals out, or to move through a forest while hunting.
   - _The keepers beat the reeds along the riverbank to drive out the ducks._
   - _Hunters beat dense thickets to push game toward open ground._
24. Of a bird, bat, or insect: to flap its wings up and down in quick strokes, especially when flying.
   - Simple: For a bird, bat, or insect, to move its wings up and down very fast, often while 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._

## Noun

3. The regular rhythm or pulse of music, or one of the steady units of time that make it up.
   - Simple: The steady rhythm you can tap along to in music, or one count of it.
   - _The drummer laid down a funky beat for the chorus._
   - _Different genres are built on distinct beats._
5. The instrumental track of a hip-hop song, over which the vocals are performed.
   - Simple: The instrumental backing of a hip-hop song, without the words.
   - _She freestyled over a beat her friend had produced._
   - _The album features beats from several well-known producers._
8. A single pulsation or throb, such as one movement of the heart.
   - Simple: A single throb or pulse, like one movement of the heart.
   - _She felt every beat of her racing pulse._
   - _Lying awake in the dark, she counted the slow, heavy beats of her heart._
9. An area, route, or subject regularly covered by a particular person, such as a police officer's patrol or a reporter's topic.
   - Simple: The area or subject someone regularly covers in their job, like a police officer's route or a reporter's topic.
   - _The new reporter was assigned the city government beat._
   - _Veteran journalists guard their beats fiercely, protecting sources built over years._
12. A single stroke or blow, especially one of a series.
   - Simple: A single hit or blow.
   - _With each beat of the oars, the boat surged forward._
   - _The smith brought the hammer down in steady beats._
13. A single moment or event in a film, play, or other story that pushes the plot forward or reveals a shift in a character.
   - Simple: One small moment or step in a story that moves it forward or shows a character changing.
   - _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._
16. A brief pause written into a play or screenplay for dramatic or comedic effect.
   - Simple: A short pause in a script that adds drama or makes a joke land.
   - _The director asked for a longer beat before the final line._
   - _A well-timed beat can turn an ordinary exchange into a laugh._
17. A beatnik; a member of the nonconformist Beat Generation of the 1950s.
   - Simple: A young person from the 1950s who turned away from mainstream life to follow art, poetry, and free living.
   - _A young beat hitchhiked across the country with nothing but a notebook._
   - _The bar was a favorite haunt for beats and jazz musicians alike._
23. The act of ranging over a stretch of land to drive out game, or the group of people doing so.
   - Simple: The job of searching across land to scare animals out for hunters, or the people doing it.
   - _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._

## Adjective

11. Completely worn out; exhausted. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: Very tired and without energy.
   - _By the end of the hike, everyone was totally beat._
   - _He came home beat after a double shift at the warehouse._
10. Of or characteristic of the Beat Generation and its literary and cultural style.
   - Simple: Having to do with the Beat Generation of writers and artists from the 1950s.
   - _His writing has a distinctly beat sensibility, loose and improvisational._
   - _They organized a festival of beat poetry and jazz._
15. Worn out and run-down; in poor, shabby condition. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Old and worn out, in bad shape.
   - _The apartment came with a beat refrigerator that barely worked._
   - _Everything in the garage looked beat and forgotten._
21. Dull and uninteresting; tediously boring. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Dull and not fun at all.
   - _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._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The pulsating interference produced when two tones of almost equal frequency sound together.
- (verb) To produce a pulsating sound through alternating loud and soft, as when two tones of nearly equal pitch sound together out of unison.
- (noun) A news story or research finding published ahead of competitors.
- (noun) Someone or something that outdoes another or others.
- (noun) An electoral or administrative district within a county, especially in the southern US.
- (noun) A spot that someone visits again and again or regularly hangs around in.
- (noun) A public spot where gay men go to look for casual sexual partners, mainly in Australian use.
- (noun) A contemptible person who cheats or swindles others.
- (noun) In fencing, a sharp knock against the opponent's blade to push it aside or force an opening.
- (noun) A full face of makeup, especially a polished, carefully applied one.
- (verb) To make headway into the wind by zigzagging back and forth across its direction.
- (verb) To haggle a seller into lowering what they ask, usually with down.
- (verb) To be restless, anxious, or unable to decide.
- (verb) To engage in a sex act with a partner.
- (verb) To swindle someone or steal from them.
- (adjective) Wearing makeup that has been applied flawlessly and to striking effect.
- (adjective) Unattractive, especially of a person's looks.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–9, 12–14, 16, 18–20, 22–24** — The source is bēatan, an Old English verb meaning "to beat, pound, strike," which became Middle English beten. Behind it is Proto-Germanic *bautaną, "to push, strike," reached through Proto-West Germanic *bautan, and it is traditionally linked to *bʰewd-, a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to hit, strike." Dialectal Dutch boten and Icelandic bauta, both meaning to strike, are related.
**Meanings 11, 15, 21** — From Middle English bet, the simple past of beten ("to beat"), from Old English bēot, the past of bēatan. The expected form would have been *beet, but the modern form was influenced by the present stem and the past participle beaten.

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