beats

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of beat.

   His heart beats faster whenever he sees her across the room.

   The chef beats the eggs until they turn pale and fluffy.

   Note

   Both kinds of verb travel under this one spelling. With an object, it hits or defeats: she beats the eggs, the challenger beats the champion. Without one, it pulses or strikes on its own: a heart beats, a fist beats on a door. In sailing, a boat beats to windward, zigzagging on alternate tacks across the wind rather than heading straight into it.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of beat.

   The conductor marked the strong and weak beats of every measure.

   Two officers patrol separate beats through the old town each night.

   Note

   In music the plural does real counting work: a piece's basic time units are its beats, and a conductor signals them to the players. Hip-hop gives the word a second countable life, where beats are whole instrumental tracks rather than pulses. Outside music, beats are simply strokes or throbs. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so "the drummer's beats" and "the drummer beats" differ only in grammar.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2