beat
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: bēt
ipa: /biːt/
homophone: beet
rhymes: -iːt
Forms: form: beats
form: beating
form: beat
form: beated
form: beaten
form: beat
form: beated
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: beat
form: beat
form: beat
form: beat
form: beatest
form: beat
form: beatest
form: beats
form: beateth
form: beat
form: beat
form: beat
form: beat
form: beat
form: beat
form: -
form: beating
form: beaten
Etymology: 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”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch boten (“to push, strike”), Icelandic bauta (“to hit, strike”).
Compare also Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“to strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʻ)).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
text: 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 […]
ref: 1825?, “Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder”, in The Newgate Calendar: comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters, page 231:
text: 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.
ref: 1988, Emily Honig, Gail Hershatter, “Divorce”, in Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980's, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 219:
text: 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.
ref: 2012 August 21, Ed Pilkington, “Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die?”, in The Guardian:
text: 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.
ref: 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 Oct 2022:
synonyms: word: knock
word: pound
word: strike
word: hammer
word: whack
word: abuse
word: aggress
word: assail
word: assault
word: attack
word: beat
word: beleaguer
word: bepommel
word: beset
word: besiege
word: bombard
word: charge
word: dust up
word: fall on
word: fall upon
word: hit
word: impugn
word: invade
word: lay into
word: lay siege
word: let someone have it
word: light into
word: onfall
word: onset
word: overrun
word: pommel
word: pound
word: rush
word: set the dogs upon
word: set upon
word: storm
word: strike
word: strike at
word: wap
word: whap
word: bang
word: baste
word: batter
word: beat
word: belabor
word: blow
word: boom-boom
word: buffet
word: butt
word: calcitrate
word: dab
word: dash
word: dowse
word: fetch one a blow
word: flap
word: give toco
word: kick
word: knock
word: hammer
word: hit
word: impact
word: jerk
word: lunge
word: patter
word: pat
word: pelt
word: pink
word: poke
word: pummel
word: punch
word: pound
word: tap
word: thrash
word: thump
word: thwack
word: rap
word: slam
word: slap
word: smite
word: strike
word: swap
word: vapulate
word: whack
word: whip
word: yerk
glosses: To hit; to strike.
examples: text: He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
glosses: To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
examples: text: […] the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door […]
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 19:22:
text: The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jonah 4:8:
text: This public envy, seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings, and estates themselves.
ref: 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Envy”, in Essayes:
text: Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below.
ref: 1662 January 1, John Dryden, To the Lord Chancellor Hyde, line 144:
text: What tale do the roaring ocean, / And the nightwind, bleak and wild, / As they beat at the crazy casement, / Tell to that little child?
ref: 1850, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Twilight”, in The Seaside and the Fireside:
glosses: To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
examples: text: A thousand hearts beat happily.
ref: 1812–18, George Gordon Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 3, verse 21:
text: 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?’
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To move with pulsation or throbbing.
examples: text: Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.
text: No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him.
text: I just can't seem to beat the last level of this video game.
text: There's nothing in this world beats a 52 Vincent and a red-headed girl.
ref: 1991, Richard Thompson, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”:
glosses: To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
examples: text: The part of the wood to be beaten for deer sloped all the way from the roadside to the loch.
ref: 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 81:
glosses: To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
examples: text: Beat the eggs and whip the cream.
glosses: To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
examples: text: He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
synonyms: negotiate
glosses: To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
raw_tags: in haggling for a price of a buyer
examples: text: to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters
glosses: To indicate by beating or drumming.
examples: text: 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,
ref: 1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem, book 1:
glosses: To tread, as a path.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education:
glosses: To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
examples: text: to still my beating mind
ref: 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]:
glosses: To be in agitation or doubt.
examples: text: The drums beat.
glosses: To make a sound when struck.
examples: text: The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: He beat me there.
text: The place is empty; we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch.
glosses: To arrive at a place before someone.
examples: text: Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat.
text: 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.
ref: 2017-02-08, “Big (Millie B reply)”performed by Sophie Aspin:
synonyms: word: do it
word: get it on
word: have sex
word: shag
word: approach
word: cohabit
word: company
word: copulate
word: couple
word: engage in sex
word: exchange flesh
word: have intimate relations
word: have marital relations
word: have sex
word: have sexual relations
word: intercourse
word: know
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: make love
word: mate
word: share a bed
word: sleep together
word: strain
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beat
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: bop
word: bounce
word: breed
word: bump nasties
word: bump uglies
word: catch a dick
word: dance
word: discuss Uganda
word: dip one's pen in someone's inkwell
word: do it
word: do the deed
word: do the nasty
word: eff
word: engender
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get busy
word: get down
word: get freaky
word: get it
word: get it on
word: get jiggy
word: get laid
word: get lucky
word: get one's dick wet
word: get one's end away
word: get one's freak on
word: get one's groove on
word: get one's leg over
word: get one's oats
word: get physical
word: get some
word: get the dirty water off one's chest
word: graft the forked tree
word: go all the way
word: haul one's ashes
word: have it away
word: have it off
word: hide the salami
word: hide the sausage
word: hide the wienie
word: hike the Appalachian Trail
word: hook up
word: hump
word: jig-jig
word: knock boots
word: lay pipe
word: lay the pipe
word: make it
word: make out
word: make the beast with two backs
word: make whoopee
word: meddle
word: ming
word: Netflix and chill
word: penetrate
word: pipe
word: pipe down
word: play
word: play hide the sausage
word: pound
word: rail
word: ride
word: rock and roll
word: roger
word: roll around
word: root
word: screw
word: see someone's etchings
word: sex
word: shag
word: shelve
word: show someone one's etchings
word: slap bellies
word: stick
word: tumble
glosses: To have sexual intercourse.
examples: text: He beat me out of 12 bucks last night.
text: I already beat him, but he hasn't realized it yet.
text: 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.
ref: 1900, Fame, quoting Retail Trade Advocate, page 472:
glosses: To rob; to cheat or scam.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: abeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: bad to beat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beatable
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat about
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat about the bush
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat a dead horse
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat a hasty retreat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat all
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat a retreat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat around the bush
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat as one
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat back
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat Banaghan
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat down
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beatee
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beater
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat everything
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat feet
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat hollow
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beating-heart transplant
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat into
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat into a cocked hat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat into fits
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat into shape
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat it
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat Jack out of doors
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat like a jungle drum
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat my neighbour out of doors
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat off
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat off with a stick
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat on
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's brain
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's brains out
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's breast
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's chest
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's face
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's head against a stone wall
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's meat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's swords into ploughshares
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat one's swords into plowshares
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat out
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat senseless
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat somebody to the punch
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat someone at their own game
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat someone round the ears
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat someone's arse
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat someone's ass
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat someone's brains out
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat someone's time
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat some sense into
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the air
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the bat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the bishop
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the bounds
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the bushes
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the clock
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the cock
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the crap out of
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the crowd
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the daylight out of
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the daylights out of
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the drum
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the drum for
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the dummy
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the dust
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the hoof
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the meat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the odds
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the pants off
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the poop out of
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the rap
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the shit out of
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the stuffing out of
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the system
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the tar out of
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat the wing
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat time
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat to
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat to a pulp
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat to pulp
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat to quarters
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat to the punch
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat up
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat up on
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beat your neighbour out of doors
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: bebeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: beetle
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: be still my beating heart
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: browbeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: burn-beat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: devil's beating his wife
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: don't that beat all
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: dry beat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: forbeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: if that doesn't beat all
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: if that don't beat all
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: inbeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: misbeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: overbeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: put an egg in one's shoe and beat it
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: rebeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: tobeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: to beat the band
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: unbeatability
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: unbeatable
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: underbeat
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: wife-beater
sense: Terms derived from beat (verb)
word: world-beating