Beat (bēt), v. t. [imp. Beat; p. p. Beat, Beaten (&unr_;); p. pr. & vb. n. Beating.] [OE. beaten, beten, AS. beátan; akin to Icel. bauta, OHG. bōzan. Cf. 1st Butt, Button.] 1. To strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon; as, to beat one's breast; to beat iron so as to shape it; to beat grain, in order to force out the seeds; to beat eggs and sugar; to beat a drum.
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Thou shalt beat some of it [spices] very small. Ex. xxx. 36.
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They did beat the gold into thin plates. Ex. xxxix. 3.
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2. To punish by blows; to thrash.
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3. To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game.
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To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey. Prior.
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4. To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.
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A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms. Milton.
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5. To tread, as a path.
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Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way. Blackmore.
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6. To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, etc.; to vanquish, defeat, or conquer; to surpass or be superior to.
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He beat them in a bloody battle. Prescott.
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For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that. M. Arnold.
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7. To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with out. [Colloq.]
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8. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
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Why should any one . . . beat his head about the Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic? Locke.
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9. (Mil.) To give the signal for, by beat of drum; to sound by beat of drum; as, to beat an alarm, a charge, a parley, a retreat; to beat the general, the reveille, the tattoo. See Alarm, Charge, Parley, etc.
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10. to baffle or stump; to defy the comprehension of (a person); as, it beats me why he would do that.
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11. to evade, avoid, or escape (blame, taxes, punishment); as, to beat the rap (be acquitted); to beat the sales tax by buying out of state.
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To beat down, to haggle with (any one) to secure a lower price; to force down. [Colloq.] -- To beat into, to teach or instill, by repetition. -- To beat off, to repel or drive back. -- To beat out, to extend by hammering. -- To beat out of a thing, to cause to relinquish it, or give it up. “Nor can anything beat their posterity out of it to this day.” South. -- To beat the dust. (Man.) (a) To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a horse. (b) To perform curvets too precipitately or too low. -- To beat the hoof, to walk; to go on foot. -- To beat the wing, to flutter; to move with fluttering agitation. -- To beat time, to measure or regulate time in music by the motion of the hand or foot. -- To beat up, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to beat up an enemy's quarters.
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Syn. -- To strike; pound; bang; buffet; maul; drub; thump; baste; thwack; thrash; pommel; cudgel; belabor; conquer; defeat; vanquish; overcome.
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Beat (&unr_;), n. 1. A stroke; a blow.
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He, with a careless beat,
Struck out the mute creation at a heat. Dryden.
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2. A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse.
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3. (Mus.) (a) The rise or fall of the hand or foot, marking the divisions of time; a division of the measure so marked. In the rhythm of music the beat is the unit. (b) A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament.
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4. (Acoustics & Mus.) A sudden swelling or reënforcement of a sound, recurring at regular intervals, and produced by the interference of sound waves of slightly different periods of vibrations; applied also, by analogy, to other kinds of wave motions; the pulsation or throbbing produced by the vibrating together of two tones not quite in unison. See Beat, v. i., 8.
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5. A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat; analogously, for newspaper reporters, the subject or territory that they are assigned to cover; as, the Washington beat.
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6. A place of habitual or frequent resort.
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7. A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; -- often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat; also, deadbeat. [Low]
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Beat of drum (Mil.), a succession of strokes varied, in different ways, for particular purposes, as to regulate a march, to call soldiers to their arms or quarters, to direct an attack, or retreat, etc. -- Beat of a watch, or Beat of a clock, the stroke or sound made by the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of beat, according as the stroke is at equal or unequal intervals.
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Beat, n. 1. One that beats, or surpasses, another or others; as, the beat of him. [Colloq.]
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2. The act of one that beats a person or thing; as: (a) (Newspaper Cant) The act of obtaining and publishing a piece of news by a newspaper before its competitors; also, the news itself; -- also called a scoop or exclusive.
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It's a beat on the whole country. Scribner's Mag.
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(b) (Hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively. “Driven out in the course of a beat.” Encyc. of Sport.
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Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them. Encyc. of Sport.
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(c) (Fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
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