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beat

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[ US /ˈbit/ ]
[ UK /bˈiːt/ ]
VERB
  1. wear out completely
    I'm beat
    He was all washed up after the exam
    This kind of work exhausts me
  2. indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks
    Beat the rhythm
  3. move rhythmically
    Her heart was beating fast
  4. move with a thrashing motion
    The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky
    The bird flapped its wings
  5. avoid paying
    beat the subway fare
  6. be a mystery or bewildering to
    Got me--I don't know the answer!
    This beats me!
    a vexing problem
    This question really stuck me
  7. glare or strike with great intensity
    The sun was beating down on us
  8. sail with much tacking or with difficulty
    The boat beat in the strong wind
  9. produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly
    beat the drum
  10. give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
    Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night
    The teacher used to beat the students
  11. make a rhythmic sound
    The drums beat all night
    Rain drummed against the windshield
  12. shape by beating
    beat swords into ploughshares
  13. move with a flapping motion
    The bird's wings were flapping
  14. make a sound like a clock or a timer
    the grandfather clock beat midnight
    the clocks were ticking
  15. make by pounding or trampling
    beat a path through the forest
  16. strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music
    beat one's breast
    beat one's foot rhythmically
  17. be superior
    Reading beats watching television
    This sure beats work!
  18. move with or as if with a regular alternating motion
    the city pulsated with music and excitement
  19. come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
    We beat the competition
    Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship
    Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game
  20. stir vigorously
    beat the cream
    beat the egg whites
  21. beat through cleverness and wit
    She outfoxed her competitors
    I beat the traffic
  22. hit repeatedly
    beat on the door
    beat the table with his shoe
  23. strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
NOUN
  1. a stroke or blow
    the signal was two beats on the steam pipe
  2. a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations
  3. the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
    he could feel the beat of her heart
  4. a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
  5. the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music
    the conductor set the beat
    the piece has a fast rhythm
  6. a regular rate of repetition
    the cox raised the beat
  7. a regular route for a sentry or policeman
    in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name
  8. (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
  9. the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
  10. the sound of stroke or blow
    he heard the beat of a drum
ADJECTIVE
  1. very tired
    I'm dead after that long trip
    so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere
    was all in at the end of the day
    bushed after all that exercise
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How To Use beat In A Sentence

  • Hale and hearty, though aged, strong-featured, with the tough and leathery skin produced by long years of sunbeat and weatherbeat, his was the unmistakable sea face and eyes; and at once there came to me a bit of Kipling's A Winner of the Victoria Cross
  • And in a way I want to make my language as mimetic as possible, as sensual as possible, so that you can feel the treetops, taste the lamb chump chops, and hear the wind and the sound of the surf beating on the beach.
  • Rihanna is real clingy, a bit two clingy saying he cant talk to other women, even though there just friends! but he is also in the wrong for doing it!!!!! like ye dnt go round beatin up women no matter how bad they are! gooddd like … buh i LOVE chris brown so im natt sayn nethn! Chris Brown Rihanna Break-Up Following Alleged Assault
  • The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first.
  • High-frequency waves broadcast by the radar bounce off a person, scanning the in-and-out movement of the chest and more subtle, but also detectable, motion of the heartbeat against the chest wall.
  • Looking through the casement was the visage of the mariner, no longer stern, but moved with unutterable emotion, and tears, yes, tears trickling down his weather-beaten cheeks. Edward Barnett; a Neglected Child of South Carolina, Who Rose to Be a Peer of Great Britain,—and the Stormy Life of His Grandfather, Captain Williams or, The Earle's Victims: with an Account of the Terrible End of the Proud Earl De Montford, the Lamen
  • They were comprehensively beaten in the final.
  • Somehow, they gathered themselves to beat Limerick in the first round of the qualifiers but the core discontent hadn't been addressed.
  • He wanted to scream and shout, beat the wall and call down the forces of destruction.
  • Smith enforced a highly unpopular no-guns policy in the cowtown, and for the most part, made the law stick by beating the hell out of people with his bare hands. The Four Toughest Men of the Old West
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