Word: beat Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-der.? Proto-Germanic *bautaną Proto-West Germanic *bautan Old English bēatan Middle English beten English beat Inherited 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”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch boten, botten, butten (“to push, strike”), German boßen (“to thrash”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (*bautan, “to beat, strike”) (whence, probably, Galician and Portuguese botar (“to expel; to throw”)); also Latin fūstis (“club, cudgel, knobbed stick, staff”), *fūtō (“to strike”), Albanian bahe, hobe (“sling”), Armenian բութ (butʻ), բույթ (buytʻ, “thumb”). Pronunciation: /biːt/ 1. To hit; to strike. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: 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 […] 2. To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm. Labels: transitive Example: He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque. 3. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly. Labels: intransitive Example: […] the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door […] Example: The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die. 4. To move with pulsation or throbbing. Labels: intransitive Example: A thousand hearts beat happily. Example: 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. To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event. Labels: transitive Example: Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row. Example: No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him. 6. To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind. Labels: intransitive 7. To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Example: Beat the eggs and whip the cream. 9. To persuade the seller to reduce a price. Labels: UK, transitive Example: He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35. 10. To indicate by beating or drumming. Labels: transitive Example: to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters 11. To tread, as a path. Example: 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. Example: 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. Example: to still my beating mind 14. To make a sound when struck. Example: The drums beat. 15. To make a succession of strokes on a drum. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. To arrive at a place before someone. Labels: transitive Example: He beat me there. Example: The place is empty; we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch. 18. To have sexual intercourse. Labels: Multicultural-London-English, intransitive, slang, vulgar Example: Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat. Example: 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. To rob; to cheat or scam. Labels: slang, transitive Example: He beat me out of 12 bucks last night. Example: I already beat him, but he hasn't realized it yet.