beat one's meat

• beat the meat

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beat one's meat (third-person singular simple present beats one's meat, present participle beating one's meat, simple past beat one's meat, past participle beaten one's meat or beat one's meat)

1. (slang, vulgar, principally of a male) To masturbate by stroking or rubbing one's penis.
   • 1948, Psychiatric quarterly (New York State Dept. of Mental Hygiene), volume 22, page 243:

     I beat my meat instead of having intercourse.

   • 1967, American Academy of Psychotherapists, Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy, page 41:

     7. Is masturbation harmful? Does it cause acne, etc.?
     8. How does a girl beat her meat?

   • 1977, Buzzcocks, Orgasm Addict:

     You get in a heat, you get in a sulk
     But you still keep a-beating your meat to pulp
     And you're an orgasm addict,

2. (slang, vulgar, by extension) To waste time; to engage in an unproductive activity.
   • 1991, William Barton, Michael Capobianco, Fellow Traveler, Spectra, →ISBN:

     He had had the theory that all this space stuff was just the Soviet Union beating its meat, shooting off into space. Other than that he couldn't imagine the slightest use for it all. Space was, after all, space — with nothing in it.

• (masturbate): see Thesaurus:masturbate
• (waste time): fanny about; spin one's wheels