beat
has definitions from the fields of physics,music,nautical,prosody,verse,writing,transportation
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[ verb ] come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
Examples "Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship" "We beat the competition" "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game" Used in print (The Sun, [Baltimore],...)Jim_Gentile bounced a hard shot off Kunkel 's glove and beat it out for a single , and when Lumpe grabbed the ball and threw it over first_baseman Throneberry 's head Brandt took third and Gentile second on the error . George_Kerr , the swift striding Jamaican , set a meet record in the 600 - yard run in the Knights_of_Columbus track_meet tonight , beating Purdue 's Dave_Mills in a hot duel in 1.10.1 . Kerr , who set the world_record earlier this month in New_York with a clocking of 1.09.3 , wiped_out Mills 's early pace and beat the young Big_10 quarter-mile king by 5 yards . (The Dallas Morning News,...)He kicked several while playing at Stamford_High_School , including one that beat Anson , 3 - 0 , in a 1953 district game . (The New York Times,...)Mazeroski , whose homer beat the Yankees in the final series game , will receive the Babe_Ruth_Award as the outstanding player in the 1960 world_series . |
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[ verb ] give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
Examples "Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night" "The teacher used to beat the students" Used in print (Evan Esar, Humorous English; a guide to comic ,...)`` I saw a man once beat his wife When on a drunken spree . Related terms flog thrash knock_cold clobber cane pistol-whip belabour rough_up soak strong-arm spank beating hit |
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[ verb ] hit repeatedly
Examples "beat on the door" "beat the table with his shoe" Used in print (Robert Penn Warren, Wilderness....)He thought_of Simms_Purdew , who once had risen at the edge of a cornfield , a maniacal scream on his lips , and swung a clubbed musket like a flail to beat down the swirl of Rebel bayonets about him . (Leon Uris, Mila 8....)All_of them were there in this loosely_knit association of diversified ideologies , and each berated the other and beat his breast for his own approaches . |
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[ verb ] move rhythmically
Examples "Her heart was beating fast" Used in print (Bruce Palmer, "My Brother's Keeper", Many Are...)The man wheezed weakly , his fetid breath beating softly against Watson 's neck . (Marvin Schiller, "The Sheep's in the Meadow,"...)My heart almost stopped beating . |
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[ verb ] shape by beating
Examples "beat swords into ploughshares" Used in print (Kenneth Scott Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutiona...)Later in the century the dream again found expression in the lines of Katherine_Lee_Bates ( 1859 - 1929 ) , daughter and granddaughter of New_England Congregational ministers , in her widely sung hymn , written in 1893 , `` America the Beautiful '' , with the words `` O beautiful for pilgrim feet whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness . |
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[ verb ] (music) make a rhythmic sound
Examples : "Rain drummed against the windshield" "The drums beat all night" Used in print (Francis Pollini, Night....)The music drove them off , or away , and he was free to walk_on_air in a very few moments , humming and jiving within , beating the rhythm within . |
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[ noun ] (music) the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music
Synonyms Examples "the piece has a fast rhythm" "the conductor set the beat" Used in print (The Providence Journal...), and Berman sifted_out all alone on the stage with the ambling chords and beat of the song just whispering into being . Related terms |
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[ verb ] (nautical,transportation) sail with much tacking or with difficulty
Examples "The boat beat in the strong wind" Used in print (Life BR-C16. Saturday Review, 44:15 (April 15, 1961)...)And on northern shores indomitable sailors from Long_Island to Lake_Michigan will beat around the buoys in dozens of frostbite races . Related terms |
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[ noun ] the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
Examples "he could feel the beat of her heart" Used in print (Gerald Green, The Heartless Light....)She answered him precisely , missing not a beat in her scrutiny of the financial reports . Related terms |
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[ noun ] (transportation) a regular route for a sentry or policeman
Examples "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name" Used in print (Breni James, Nights of the Kill....)The day-watch platoon commander , Lt._Rinker , was calling_out the beat assignments , but Matson could n't make the names mean anything . Related terms |
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[ noun ] a member of the Beat Generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
Synonyms Related terms |
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[ verb ] strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
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[ noun ] (physics) 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
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[ verb ] wear out completely
Synonyms Examples "This kind of work exhausts me" "I'm beat" "He was all washed up after the exam" |
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[ verb ] be a mystery or bewildering to
Examples "This beats me!" "Got me--I don't know the answer!" "a vexing problem" "This question really stuck me" |
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[ noun ] (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
Related terms poetic_rhythm common_measure scansion metrical_foot catalexis prosody |
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[ noun ] a stroke or blow
Examples "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe" Related terms |
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[ verb ] deprive somebody of something by deceit
Synonyms Examples "The con-man beat me out of $50" "This salesman ripped us off!" "we were cheated by their clever-sounding scheme" "They chiseled me out of my money" |
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[ adjective ] (informal) very tired
Examples "was all in at the end of the day" "so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere" "bushed after all that exercise" "I'm dead after that long trip" Related terms |
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[ verb ] be superior
Examples : "Reading beats watching television" "This sure beats work!" Related terms |
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[ noun ] (nautical,transportation) the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
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