beat

Pronunciation

• enPR: bēt, IPA: /biːt/
• Homophone: beet

Noun

beat (plural beats)

1. A stroke; a blow.
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
   2. (journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
9. (dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
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
14. (hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
15. (fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
16. (slang) A makeup look; compare beat one's face.

Verb

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.
   • 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.
   • Synonyms: knock, pound, strike, hammer, whack; see also attack, hit
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.
4. (intransitive) To move with pulsation or throbbing.
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.
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.
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.
   • He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
   • Synonym: negotiate
10. (transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.
    • to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters
11. To tread, as a path.
12. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
13. To be in agitation or doubt.
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.
    • Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat.
    • Synonyms: do it, get it on, have sex, shag; see also copulate
19. (transitive, slang) To rob.
    • He beat me out of 12 bucks last night.

Pronunciation

• enPR: bēt, bĕt, IPA: /biːt/, (often proscribed) /bɛt/
• Homophones: beet, bet

Verb

beat

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

Adjective

beat (comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

1. (US slang) Exhausted.
   • After the long day, she was feeling completely beat.
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.

Alternative forms

• Beat

Pronunciation

• enPR: bēt, IPA: /biːt/
• Homophone: beet

Noun

beat (plural beats)

1. A beatnik.

Adjective

beat (comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

1. Relating to the Beat Generation.
   • beat poetry

Anagrams

• Bate, Beta, Teba, abet, bate, beta

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA: /beˈat/

Adjective

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

1. saint, beatified

Noun

beat m (plural beats)

1. monk

Related terms

• beatífic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bit/
• Hyphenation: beat
• Homophones: bied, biedt, biet

Noun

beat m (plural beats, diminutive beatje n)

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

Anagrams

• bate

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈbiːt/, [ˈbiːt̪]

Noun

beat

1. (music) beat

Adjective

beat (invariable)

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

Noun

beat m (invariable)

1. beat (rhythm accompanying music)

Anagrams

• beta, tabe

Verb

beat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of beō

Adjective

beat

1. drunk

Pronunciation

• IPA: [be̯at]

Adjective

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

1. drunk, drunken, intoxicated; tipsy

Alternative forms

• beate

Noun

beat

1. meat

Noun

beat (nominative plural beats)

1. happiness