beat

Meaning

Noun

1. A stroke; a blow.
2. A pulsation or throb.
3. 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.
5. A rhythm.
6. The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
7. The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency
8. A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
9. (broadly) An area of a person's responsibility, especially
10. (broadly) An area of a person's responsibility, especially
11. (dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
12. (colloquial, dated) That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.
13. (Southern-US, dated, obsolete) A precinct.
14. (dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
15. (Australia, dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
16. (archaic) A low cheat or swindler.
17. The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
18. A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
19. (slang) A makeup look; compare beat one's face.

Verb

1. (transitive) To hit; to strike.
2. (transitive) To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
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.
6. (intransitive) 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.
9. (UK, transitive) To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
10. (transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.
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.
15. (intransitive) To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
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.
18. (Multicultural-London-English, intransitive, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse.
19. (slang, transitive) To rob; to cheat or scam.

Verb

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

Adj

1. (US, slang) Exhausted.
2. (slang) Dilapidated, beat up.
3. Having impressively attractive makeup.
4. (slang) Boring.
5. (slang) Ugly.

Adj

Relating to the Beat Generation.

beat

• Noun
• Verb
• Verb
• Adj
• Adj

Read more

Synonyms

strike

hit

defeat

pound

💷

thrash

knock

whip

throb

flog

overcome

pulse

lash

win

rhythm

thump

conquer

bang

hammer

🔨

pulsate

punch

👊

vanquish

batter

flap

attack

👊

slap

beat up

crush

smite

smash

kill

🔪🩸👤

blow

smack

scourge

palpitate

thresh

beat out

pulsation

stroke

clap

👏

tempo

drum

🥁

break

heartbeat

💓

belabour

trounce

punish

drub

swing

bash

tap

Translations

battre

schlagen

frapper

battere

bater

golpear

batir

vaincre

klopfen

picchiare

besiegen

vencer

pegar

slaan

Pronounced as (IPA)

/biːt/

Etymology

Cognate with Old Irish: fobotha

Cognate with Latin: confutō

Cognate with Albanian: bahe

Cognate with Lithuanian: baudžiù

Cognate with Classical Armenian: բութ

Inherited from Middle English: bet

Inherited from Old English: bēot

In summary

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)).

Sentences

Yet each felt his heart beat a bit faster .