1. Hit repeatedly
   "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe"
    
2. 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";
   - beat up, work over [informal]
    
3. Come out better in a competition, race, or conflict; defeat thoroughly
   "Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the competition"; "Our team beat out the competition in the finals";
   - beat out, crush, shell [US], trounce, vanquish
    
4. Move rhythmically
   "Her heart was beating fast";
   - pound, thump
    
5. (music) produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly
   "beat the drum"
    
6. Make a rhythmic sound
   "Rain beat against the windscreen";
   - drum, thrum
    
7. Be superior
   "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work!"
    
8. Shape by beating
   "beat swords into ploughshares"
    
9. (cooking) stir vigorously
   "beat the cream";
   - scramble
    
10. Glare or strike with great intensity
    "The sun was beating down on us"
     
11. (of wings) move up and down with a thrashing motion
    "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky";
    - flap
     
12. Move with a flapping motion
    "The bird's wings were beating";
    - flap
     
13. Indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks
    "Beat the rhythm"
     
14. Move with or as if with a regular alternating motion
    "the city beat with music and excitement";
    - pulsate, quiver
     
15. 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"
     
16. Make by pounding or trampling
    "beat a path through the forest"
     
17. Strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
    "The hunters beat the bushes to flush out the game"
     
18. Sail with much tacking or with difficulty
    "The boat beat in the strong wind"
     
19. Avoid paying
    "beat the subway fare";
    - bunk [informal]
     
20. Make a sound like a clock or a timer
    "the grandfather clock beat midnight"; "The old grandfather clock beated in the hallway";
    - tick, ticktock, ticktack [N. Amer]
     
21. Beat through cleverness and wit
    "I beat the traffic";
    - outwit, overreach, outsmart, outfox, circumvent, outthink
     
22. Confuse or leave at a loss because of something complex or difficult to understand
    "This beats me!";
    - confuse, throw, fox, befuddle, fuddle, bedevil, confound, discombobulate [informal], perplex, vex, stick, get, puzzle, mystify, baffle, pose, bewilder, flummox, stupefy, nonplus, gravel, dumbfound
     
23. [informal] Wear out completely
    "I'm beat";
    - exhaust, wash up, tucker [N. Amer, informal], tucker out [N. Amer, informal]

1. The basic regular repeating sound unit in a piece of music
   "the conductor set the beat";
   - rhythm, musical rhythm
    
2. The rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
   "he could feel the beat of her heart";
   - pulse, pulsation, heartbeat
    
3. A stroke or blow
   "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe"
    
4. The sound of stroke or blow
   "he heard the beat of a drum"
    
5. A regular route for a sentry or policeman
   "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name";
   - round
    
6. A regular rate of repetition
   "the cox raised the beat"
    
7. (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
   "The poem's regular beat gave it a rhythmic quality";
   - meter [US], metre [Brit, Cdn], measure, cadence
    
8. 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
   "The musician could hear the beat produced by the slightly out-of-tune strings"
    
9. [informal] A member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behaviour
   "The beat recited poetry in the smoky coffee house";
   - beatnik [informal]
    
10. The act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
    "The sailing boat made good progress on its beat against the wind"

1. Very tired
   "so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere";
   - all in, bushed, dead [informal]

Sounds like: beet

Derived forms: beat, beaten, beats, beating

See also: beaten, tired

Type of: act, affect, agitate, bear on, bear upon, bespeak, betoken [archaic], cheat, chisel [informal], create, displace, disturb, exceed, fag [informal], fag out [Brit, informal], fatigue, forge, form, glare, go, impact, indicate, itinerary, jade, knacker [Brit, informal], make, mold [N. Amer], mould [Brit, Cdn], move, musical time, nonconformist, oscillation, outdo, outgo [archaic], outmatch, outperform, outstrip, outwear, pace, path, periodic event, play, poetic rhythm, point, prosody, raise up, rate, recurrent event, recusant, rhythmic pattern, rip off [informal], route, sail, sailing, shake up, shape, signal, sound, stir up, strike, stroke, surmount, surpass, tire, tire out, vibration, wear, wear down, wear out, wear upon, weary, work

Part of: beat generation, beatniks, beats

Encyclopedia: Beat, bishop of Urgell