beat

From Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to hit, strike”).

Compare Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“I strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʻ)).

• enPR: bēt, IPA^(key): /biːt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: beet
• Rhymes: -iːt

beat (plural beats)

1. A stroke; a blow.
   • 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     He, […] with a careless beat, / Struck out the mute creation at a heat.

2. A pulsation or throb.

   a beat of the heart

   the beat of the pulse

3. (music) A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.
4. A rhythm.

   I love watching her dance to a pretty drum beat with a bouncy rhythm!

   1. (music) The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
5. The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
6. The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency
7. (authorship) A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
8. (by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially
   1. The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.

      to walk the beat

      • 1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 3, in A Study in Scarlet:

        There has been a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. Our man on the beat saw a light there about two in the morning, and as the house was an empty one, suspected that something was amiss.

      • 2019 January 29, Mike Masnick, “How My High School Destroyed An Immigrant Kid's Life Because He Drew The School's Mascot”, in Techdirt‎:

        […] the rise of embedding police into schools – so-called School Resource Officers (SROs), who are employed by the local police, but whose “beat” is a school. Those officers report to the local police department and not the school, and can, and frequently do, have different priorities.

   2. (journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).

      Synonym: newsbeat

      • 2020 April, Elizabeth Kolbert, “Why we won't avoid a climate catastrophe”, in National Geographic:

        As an adult, I became a journalist whose beat is the environment. In a way, I’ve turned my youthful preoccupations into a profession.

9. (dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
   • 1898, unknown author, Scribner's Magazine, volume 24:

     It's a beat on the whole country.

10. (colloquial, dated) That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.

    the beat of him

11. (dated or obsolete, Southern US) A precinct.
12. (dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
    1. (Australia) An area frequented by gay men in search of sexual activity. See gay beat.
13. (archaic) A low cheat or swindler.

    a dead beat

    • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

      “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.

14. (hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
    • 1911, Hedley Peek, Frederick George Aflalo, Encyclopaedia of Sport:

      Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them.

15. (fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
16. (slang) A makeup look; compare beat one's face.
    • 2018, Leah Prinzivalli, “Kylie Jenner Shared a Sneak Peek of Her New Kylie Cosmetics Blush on Instagram”, in Allure‎:

      She made sure to give fans all the details about her beat in the caption.

• → Pennsylvania German: biede

• (piece of hip-hop music): track

beat (third-person singular simple present beats, present participle beating, simple past beat, past participle beaten or (especially colloquial) beat)

1. (transitive) To hit; to strike.

   Synonyms: knock, pound, strike, hammer, whack; see also Thesaurus:attack, Thesaurus:hit

   As soon as she heard that her father had died, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.

   • 1825?, “Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder”, in The Newgate Calendar: comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters, page 231:

     Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat: that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall […]

   • 1988, Emily Honig, Gail Hershatter, “Divorce”, in Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980's‎, Stanford, Cali.: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 219:

     The case of a woman named Qu Hua from Qiqihaer, Heilongjiang, illustrates this possibility. She married a worker named Xu Baocheng in 1980, and they got along very well until she gave birth to a girl. Then Xu immediately began to beat Qu, and forced her and the baby to live in a small shack.

   • 2012 August 21, Ed Pilkington, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian‎:

     In this account of events, the cards were stacked against Clemons from the beginning. His appeal lawyers have argued that he was physically beaten into making a confession, the jury was wrongfully selected and misdirected, and his conviction largely achieved on individual testimony with no supporting forensic evidence presented.

   • 2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 5:50 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)‎, archived from the original on 17 October 2022:

     The attack also afforded Helena to a front-seat view of literal air-to-air melee combat, as one Wildcat pilot of the Cactus Air Force, who was swooping in to help break up the attack, found himself out of machine-gun ammo; instead, he dropped his landing gear, positioned himself above the nearest bomber, and begun beating it to death, in midair, using his landing gear as clubs. After a bit of evasive action that the fighter easily kept up with, the repeated slamming broke something important, and the bomber spiralled down into the sea.

2. (transitive) To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.

   He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.

3. (intransitive) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 19:22:

     […] the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jonah 4:8:

     The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Envy”, in Essayes:

     This public envy, seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings, and estates themselves.

   • 1662 January 1, John Dryden, To the Lord Chancellor Hyde, line 144:

     Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below.

   • 1850, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Twilight”, in The Seaside and the Fireside:

     What tale do the roaring ocean, / And the nightwind, bleak and wild, / As they beat at the crazy casement, / Tell to that little child?

4. (intransitive) To move with pulsation or throbbing.
   • 1812–18, George Gordon Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 3, verse 21:

     A thousand hearts beat happily.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto IV:

     O heart, how fares it with thee now,
     ⁠That thou should’st fail from thy desire,
     ⁠Who scarcely darest to inquire,
     ‘What is it makes me beat so low?’

5. (transitive) To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.

   Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.

   No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him.

   I just can't seem to beat the last level of this video game.

   • 1991, Richard Thompson (lyrics and music), “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”:

     There's nothing in this world beats a 52 Vincent and a red-headed girl.

6. (intransitive, nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
7. (transitive) To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
   • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 81:

     The part of the wood to be beaten for deer sloped all the way from the roadside to the loch.

8. To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.

   Beat the eggs and whip the cream.

9. (transitive, UK, in haggling for a price of a buyer) To persuade the seller to reduce a price.

   Synonym: negotiate

   He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.

10. (transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.

    to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters

11. To tread, as a path.
    • 1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem, book 1:

      While I this unexampled task essay, / Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way, / Celestial Dove! divine assistance bring, / Sustain me on thy strong-extended wing,

12. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
    • 1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education:

      I know not why any one should waste his time, and beat his head about the Latin grammar, who does not intend to be a critick, or make speeches, and write dispatches in it.

13. To be in agitation or doubt.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

      to still my beating mind

14. To make a sound when struck.

    The drums beat.

15. (military, intransitive) To make a succession of strokes on a drum.

    The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.

16. To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and lesser intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations not perfectly in unison.
17. (transitive) To arrive at a place before someone.

    He beat me there.

    The place is empty, we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch.

18. (intransitive, MLE, MTE, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse.

    Synonyms: do it, get it on, have sex, shag; see also Thesaurus:copulate

    Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat.

    • 2017-02-08, “Big (Millie B reply)”‎performed by Sophie Aspin:

      Millie B gets ten shags a week. New day, different guy, that's just peek. You can't name a guy that you haven't tried to beat. You can't name a guy that you haven't tried to beat.

19. (transitive, slang) To rob.

    He beat me out of 12 bucks last night.

    • 1900, Fame, quoting Retail Trade Advocate, page 472:

      When one of 'em runs up a bill here, then goes off and deals somewhere else, and dodges me every time he sees me, that's the man I'm after with a sharp stick. [...] Honest people often get into tight places, and we would rather help 'em than hurt 'em then. But some just try to beat you.

From Middle English bet (simple past of beten "to beat"), from Old English bēot (simple past of bēatan "to beat"). Middle English bet would regularly yield *beet; the modern form is influenced by the present stem and the past participle beaten. Pronunciations with /ɛ/ (from Middle English bette, alternative simple past of beten) are possibly analogous to read (/ɹɛd/), led, met, etc.

• enPR: bēt, bĕt, IPA^(key): /biːt/, (often proscribed) /bɛt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt, -ɛt
• Homophones: beet, bet

beat

1. simple past tense of beat
2. (especially colloquial) past participle of beat

beat (comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

1. (US slang) Exhausted.

   After the long day, she was feeling completely beat.

   • 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 10, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2:

     I stayed in San Francisco a week and had the beatest time of my life. Marylou and I walked around for miles, looking for food-money.

2. Dilapidated, beat up.

   Dude, you drive a beat car like that and you ain’t gonna get no honeys.

3. (African-American Vernacular and gay slang) Having impressively attractive makeup.

   Her face was beat for the gods!

4. (slang) Boring.
5. (slang, of a person) Ugly.

• (exhausted): See also Thesaurus:fatigued
• (dilapidated): See also Thesaurus:ramshackle
• (boring): See also Thesaurus:boring
• (ugly): See also Thesaurus:ugly

From beatnik, or beat generation.

• Beat

• enPR: bēt, IPA^(key): /biːt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: beet
• Rhymes: -iːt

beat (plural beats)

1. A beatnik.
   • 2008 March, David Wills, Beatdom, number 3:

     The beats were pioneers with no destination, changing the world one impulse at a time.

beat (comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

1. Relating to the Beat Generation.

   beat poetry

• DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. →ISBN.

• Bate, Beta, Teba, abet, bate, beta

Borrowed from Latin beātus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [beˈat]
• Rhymes: -at

beat (feminine beata, masculine plural beats, feminine plural beates)

1. saint, beatified

• beateria

beat m (plural beats, feminine beata)

1. monk

• beatífic

• “beat” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “beat”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “beat” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “beat” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from English beat.

• IPA^(key): /bit/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: beat
• Rhymes: -it
• Homophones: bied, biedt, biet

beat m (plural beats, diminutive beatje n)

1. A beat, a rhythmic pattern, notably in music
2. (music) beat an early rock genre.

• beatmis
• beatmuziek

• bate

Unadapted borrowing from English beat.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiːt/, [ˈbiːt̪]

beat

1. (jazz, hiphop, EDM) beat

• biitti

• “beat”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

Unadapted borrowing from English beat.

beat (invariable)

1. beat (50s US literary and 70s UK music scenes)

beat m (invariable)

1. beat (rhythm accompanying music)

• beta, tabe

beat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of beō

From a contracted Vulgar Latin form of Late Latin bibitus (“drunk”), from Latin bibō (“drink”).

beat

1. drunk

From a contracted Vulgar Latin form (possibly *beb(e)tus) of Late Latin bibitus (“drunk”), from Latin bibō (“drink”). Compare Spanish beodo.

• IPA^(key): [be̯at]

beat m or n (feminine singular beată, masculine plural beți, feminine and neuter plural bete)

1. drunk, drunken, intoxicated; tipsy

   Synonyms: îmbătat; băut; (very formal) în stare de ebrietate; (slang) matol; (slang) matolit; (slang) pilit; (slang) mangă; (slang) țeapăn; (slang) cherchelit

   Antonym: treaz

• beție

• bea
• bețiv
• îmbăta

Borrowed from English beat.

• IPA^(key): [bit]

beat n (plural beaturi)

1. (music) beat

   Nu mint, doar că tu nu înțelegi ce vreau să transmit pe beat.

   I ain't lying, you just don't understand what I'm tryna convey on the beat.

• instrumental
• ritm

• beate

beat

1. meat

beat (nominative plural beats)

1. happiness