▪ I. beat, v.1
(biːt)
Pa. tense beat (biːt). Pa. pple. beaten (ˈbiːt(ə)n), beat. Forms: inf. 1–2 béat-an, 2–3 beat-en, 3–5 bet-en, 4 beet-e(n, 4–6 bete, 5 beite, 5–6 bette, 5–7 beate, 7– beat. pa. tense 1–4 béot, 3 biet, 3–7 bet, 4–6 bett, bete, 4 but, 4–7 bette, 5 bote, 6– beat, 7 Sc. bet; also 3–6 beted, beated. pa. pple. 1–2 béaten, 3 bætenn, i-bet, i-beaten, 4 y-bete, i-bete, 4–6 beten, 4–7 bett(e, 5–6 bete, 5–7 bet, 6 betten, beate, y-bet, 7 beated, 6–9 beat, 5– beaten.
[Com. Teut.; OE. béatan, str. vb., identical with ON. bauta, OHG. bôȥan, MHG. bôȥen:—OTeut. *baut-an, not found in Gothic. The OE. pa. tense béot (repr. earlier reduplicated *bebôt, *baibaut), duly became in ME. bēt, bete (with close ē, as distinct from the open e or ę of the present); its mod. form would be beet, but this became obs. in 16th c. The actual pa. tense beat is prob. shortened from the ME. weak form beted, in 16th c. beated. The pa. pple. beat, still occasional for beaten in all senses, but chiefly used in sense 10, and in phrases like ‘dead-beat’ belonging to that sense, may also be from beated, but comes naturally enough from ME. bet, shortened from bete, beten, found already in 13th c., and having the open e of the present.]
I. The simple action: to strike repeatedly.
1. a. trans. To strike with repeated blows. to beat the breast: i.e. in sign of sorrow.
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. lx. 1 Nu me caru beateð heard æt heortan. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 227 Bet þi- self on þe Breste. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lii. (1495) 634 The tree ebenus tornyth in to stoon if it is longe beten. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, ii. ii. 3 Why do weepe so oft? And beate your Brest? 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 98 ¶13 At what hour they may beat the door of an acquaintance. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. i. xi, The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, Yet he cannot choose but hear. 1799 G. Smith Laborat. I. 405 Then wring it out and beat it. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. lxvi. 13 He plays with threads . he beats his chair. |
b. With extension, expressing the result of the process: to beat to powder, beat black and blue, etc.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. v. 115 Mistris Ford (good heart) is beaten blacke and blew. 1755 Smollett Quix. (1803) 215 My poor father, whom two wicked men are now beating to a jelly. 1807 Milner Martyrs i. §2. 49 He was..beat to death with cudgels. |
c. to beat the air, beat the wind, (beat the water obs.): to fight to no purpose or against no opposition; in reference to 1 Cor. ix. 26. Sometimes referring to the ordeal by battle, when one of the parties made default, in which case the other is said to have gained his cause by dealing so many blows upon the air.
| c 1375 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. 1871 II. 258 Not as betinge þe eir. 1579 Tomson Calvin Serm. Tim. 988/2 As we say in a common prouerbe, to beate the water, Saint Paule saith to beate the ayre. 1611 Bible 1 Cor. ix. 26 So fight I, not as one that beateth the ayre. 1815 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5) III. 488/2 If either of the combatants did not appear in the field..the other was to beat the wind, or to make so many flourishes with his weapon. 1884 Froude Carlyle II. xviii. 49 He cared little about contemporary politics, which he regarded as beating the wind. |
2. a. intr. To strike or deliver repeated blows (on, at anything); † to knock (at a door). to beat away or beat on: to go on beating.
| c 1230 Ancr. R. 18 Beateð on ower breoste. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 863 Betynge with his helis on the grounde. c 1435 Torr. Portugal 1515 On the dragon fast he bett. c 1450 Gologras & Gaw. liv. (1839) 158 Thai bet on sa bryimly, thai..Bristis birneis with brandis. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 576 Thir bernis bald ilkone on vther bet. 1605 Shakes. Lear i. iv. 293 O Lear, Lear, Lear! Beate at this gate, that let thy Folly in. 1611 Bible Judg. xix. 22 Certaine sonnes of Belial..beat at the doore. |
b. Said of hares and rabbits in rutting-time.
| 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xiv. (1660) 166 You shall say a Hare and Conie Beateth or Tappeth. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iii. ix. 338 Here the bellowing Harts are said to harbour..beating Hares to forme. 1721 in Bailey. |
3. a. trans. Said of the action of the feet upon the ground in walking or running; hence, to beat the streets: to walk up and down. to beat a path or track: to tread it hard or bare by frequent passage; hence, to open up or prepare a way. Often fig.
| a 1000 Beowulf 4522 Se mearh burhstede béateð. c 1375 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 166 Bete stretis vp & doun & synge & pleie as mynystrelis. 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 249 And as enamored wights are wont, He gan the streetes to beate. 1590 Nashe in Greene's Arcadia Pref. (1616) 8 Master Gascoigne..who first beate the path to that perfection. 1596 Spenser F.Q. i. i. 11 That path they take that beaten seemed most bare. 1637 W. Austin in Spurgeon Treas. David I. 235 Jesus Christ..who hath beaten the way for us. 1693 W. Freke Sel. Ess. 18 Our Ancestors haue beat the Track before us. 1718 Pope Iliad ii. 184 Their trampling feet Beat the loose sands. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 521 The paths she trod; Various, extensive, beaten but by few. 1875 C. Rossetti Goblin Market 193 This beaten way thou beatest, I fear is Hell's own track. |
b. to beat one's way: to travel, or make one's way, spec. by illicit means. U.S.
| 1883 G. W. Peck Peck's Sun (Milwaukee) 16 June 1/2 He started home, beating his way on the trains. 1891 C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 53 To beat one's way, or to beat the conductor or the railroad, are equivalent phrases for travelling in the cars without paying any fare. Ibid. 195 There was nothing for it but to start out and beat my way there. 1904 N.Y. Tribune 8 May 10 [They should] stop trying to ‘beat their way’ by stealing a right of way that belongs to other people. 1926 J. Black You can't Win vi. 75 ‘Traveling?’ he asked... ‘Beating it.’ |
c. to beat it: to go away, to ‘clear out’. orig. U.S.
| 1906 H. Green Actors' Boarding House 108, I told 'em to beat it. 1908 A. Ruhl Other Americans ii. 10 He'll be beatin' it for Paris pretty soon where the rest of 'em all went. 1917 C. Mathewson Sec. Base Sloan xiv. 193 You get your boss to let you off for that long, beat it over to Harrisville tomorrow night. Ibid. xxi. 283 Beat it! Get out of here. 1926 Leacock Winnowed Wisd. 79 ‘To your posts, all of you!’ she cried, ‘Beat it,’ she honked. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble North Sea Air Station xii. 170 We were all awakened at 1.30 a.m., and told to beat it to the air station. 1930 Wyndham Lewis Apes of God xii. vi. 469 That's enough! Don't waste my time but beat it... Get to hell out of this! 1951 ‘J. Wyndham’ Day of Triffids ii. 38 Fedor had not waited once the plane was down. He had switched off the lights, and beat it. |
4. a. To strike (a man or beast) with blows of the hand or any weapon so as to give pain; to inflict blows on, to thrash; to punish by beating.
| 971 Blickl. Hom. 23 Hie hine..mid heora fystum béotan. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 121 Summe..hine on þet neb mid heore hondan stercliche beoten. c 1220 St. Marher. 5 Beateð hire bare bodi wið bittre besmen. c 1280 Fall & Pass. 61 in E.E.P. (1862) 14 He was ibund to a tre . an ibet wiþ scurges kene. a 1300 Cursor M. 15827 Wit þair bastons bete þai him. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour L vi b, [She]..may wel bete herself with her owne staf. 1501 Plumpton Corr. 157 All ther servant[s] beated me one after another. c 1532 Ld. Berners Huon 433 The Gryffen bet hym merueylusly with her beke, wyngis, and talouns. 1556 Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 78 And then was..bettyn at the same pyller. 1557 Primer C iiij, Thy heavenly sonne..was cruellye bette and scourged. 1609 Bible (Douay) Num. xxii. 27 Who being angrie, bette her sides with a staffe. a 1618 Raleigh Rem. (1664) 5 Beaten with their own rods. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 47 They were beat..and turned out of doors. 1856 Ruskin King Gold. Riv. i. (ed. 3) 8 My brothers would beat me to death, Sir. |
† b. intr. To exchange blows, fight. (Fr. se battre.)
| 1586 Warner Alb. Eng. iv. xxi. (1597) 106 They spur their Horses, breake their Speares, and beat at Barriars long. |
† 5. a. trans. To strike with heavy blows or discharges of missiles; to batter, bombard. Obs. See also 17, 36, 37.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy xxxii. 12664 Þe buernes on þe bonk bet hym with stonys. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. lxii, Beated and chopt with tand antiquitie. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 702 Upon this hill, Rogendorff to beat the Castle..planted his batterie. 1664 Floddan F. iii. 22 With Bombard shot the walls he bet. |
† b. intr. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy xxiv. 9669 Beiton þurgh basnettes with the brem egge. 1633 Stafford Pac. Hib. xvii. (1821) 392 And caused the Artillery to beate upon that place. |
6. a. trans. Of water, waves, wind, weather, the sun's rays, and other physical agents: To dash against, impinge on, strike violently, assail. (poetical.) Cf. weather-beaten.
| a 1000 Riddles (Grein) iii. 6 Stréamas staðu béatað. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Aug. 47 The Sunnebeame so sore doth vs beate. 1664 Floddan F. iii. 25 Weary men with weather bet. 1697 Dryden Virg. Eclog. ix. 59 Let the wild Surges vainly beat the Shoar. 1814 Wordsw. White Doe vii. 10 Some island which the wild waves beat. 1830 Tennyson To J. S. i, The wind that beats the mountain. |
b. intr. with on, upon, against; also absol.
| c 885 K. ælfred Boeth. Metr. vi. 15 Sǽ..on staðu béateþ. a 1300 Cursor M. 1844 Þe wawis bett on euer-ilk a side. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. viii. 161 The fyreflaucht beting from the lyft on far. 1530 Palsgr. 452/2 The rayne bette..in my face. 1611 Bible Mark iv. 37 The waues beat into the ship. ― Jonah iv. 8 The Sunne beat vpon the head of Ionah. 1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. I. 53 Bristol Channel beats upon it on the North. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc. i. 352 We heard the rain beat hard. 1859 Tennyson Idylls Ded. 26 That fierce light which beats upon a throne. |
† c. (said of a river): To meet, join. Obs.
| 1577 Harrison Descr. Brit. in Holinshed xii. 55 Two rilles..joining in Wadeleie parke they beat upon the Test, not verie far from Nurseling. |
7. trans. Said of the impact of sounds. arch. or Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. xliii. 18 The vois of his thunder schal beten the erthe. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 1020 Not so much as the wordes or voices are heard, onely the sound beateth the eares. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 92 With what loud applause Did'st thou beate heauen with blessing Bullingbrooke? 1677 Gilpin Dæmonol. (1867) 136 Yet are their ears so beaten with the objection of sects and schisms. |
† 8. a. trans. To labour or ‘hammer’ at (a subject), to thresh out; to debate, discuss; reason about, argue. Obs.
| 1470 Sir J. Paston in Lett. 637 II. 393, I have betyn the mater ffor yow, your onknowleche, as I tolde hyr. 1542 Becon Pathw. Prayer Wks. (1843) 145 When he hath once thoroughly debated and beaten with himself his own misery. 1546 St. Papers Hen. VIII, XI. 197 Prayed him, in the beatinge of the matur with the Quene, to consyder and waye all partes. 1636 Healey Epictetus' Man. 160 Beate this discourse of mine over and over untill you have gotten the habite thereof. 1659 Instruct. Oratory 2 Diligently beating and examining..whatever may have relation to your subject. |
† 9. intr. To insist with iteration on or upon. Obs.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin Serm. Tim. 374/2 When we beate vpon these promises to purpose. 1593 Hooker Eccl. Pol. ii. iv. §3 Their earnestness, who beat more and more upon these last alleged words. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus iii. 1 Often to inculcate and beat vpon this point. 1633 Sanderson Serm. II. 29 The holy Apostles..beat so much..upon the argument of Christian subjection. |
10. a. trans. To overcome, to conquer in battle, or (in mod. use) in any other contest, at doing anything; to show oneself superior to, to surpass, excel. Phr. to beat all, beat anything, beat everything, etc., has been common in the U.S. since the second quarter of the 19th cent. (A natural extension of 4: cf. similar use of thrash, drub, lick, etc. The earlier examples show the transition. In the colloquial to beat one hollow, beat to sticks, beat to ribands, etc., there is a play upon other senses of beat.)
| [c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 23 The Scotts and the Pyctes, so bette and oppressyd this Lond. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. lxii. 46 The whyte dragon strongly fought with the reed dragon and bote hym euel and hym ouercome.] 1611 Bible 2 Kings xiii. 25 Three times did Ioash beat [1382 Wyclif smoot; Coverd. did smyte] him, and recouered the cities of Israel. 1634 Malory's Arthur (1816) I. 424 They came home all five well beaten. 1664 Pepys Diary 22 Dec., I hear fully the news of our being beaten to dirt at Guinny by De Ruyter. 1704 Hymn to Vict. lxvi. 12 Never was braver Army better Beat. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 180 ¶13 He had beat the Romans in a pitched battle. 1778 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 213 We were beat about the light-house. c 1800 Southey Devil's Walk xxii, This Scotch phenomenon, I trow, Beats Alexander hollow. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xi. 92 Favourite had been beat..by Sawney. 1812 T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 177 How many children have you? You beat me, I expect, in that count. 1818 Moore Fudge Fam. Paris iii, The old Café Hardy..Beats the field at a dejeuner à la fourchette. 1822 Byron Juan vii. xlii, Few are slow In thinking that their enemy is beat (Or beaten, if you insist on grammar). 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. xii. 440 The ministers were constantly beaten in the house of lords. 1839 C. Brontë Let. in Mrs. Gaskell Life of C. B. (1857) I. 199 Well! thought I, I have heard of love at first sight, but this beats all! 1847 Barham Ingol. Leg. (1877) 55 Many ladies..were beat all to sticks by the lovely Odille. 1863 Dickens in All Year Round (Christmas No.) 7/2 ‘Well!’ I says, ‘if this don't beat everything!’ 1871 G. J. Whyte-Melville Kate Cov. 1, I rode a race against Bob Dashwood..and beat him all to ribands. 1872 Freeman Gen. Sketch xiv. §11 (1874) 295 He first beat the Danes, and then the Russians. 1879 Lowell Poet. Wks. 418 And there's where I shall beat them hollow. |
b. spec. in Cricket. (See quots.)
| 1867 G. H. Selkirk Guide Cricket Ground ii. 22 The striker is said to be beat when he receives a ball so good that he is unable to play it properly and without a mistake. 1891 Grace Cricket ix. 246 Try to have sufficient command of the ball so that if it beat the batsman it will hit the wicket. 1925 Times 27 Aug. 6/1 Douglas..beat the bat once or twice with balls that broke back and kept low. |
c. Of a difficulty: To master (a person), to defy all his efforts to conquer it. Also, to baffle, perplex. Phrases to beat the band, rap: see the ns.
| c 1810 in Smiles Engineers (1862) III. 51 The engineers hereabouts are all bet; and if you really succeed in accomplishing what they cannot do, etc. 1882 J. Payn Cash Only II. 316 ‘This beats me altogether,’ mused the lawyer. 1930 W. de la Mare On the Edge 135 Why you should have taken so much trouble about it simply beats me. |
d. absol. To gain the victory.
| 1770 J. Love Cricket 24 Jove, and all-compelling Fate, In their high Will determin'd Kent should beat. 1876 Hardy Ethelberta Sequel II. 309 She threatened to run away from him..and being the woman, of course she was sure to beat in the long run. a 1887 Mod. Which side beat? |
e. To get the better of (one) by trickery; to cheat or defraud. U.S.
| 1873 Newton (Kansas) Kansan 1 May 2/2 Johnson..left..for the east, after having beat several creditors. 1886 Century Mag. Feb. 513/2 How do I know you ain't tryin to beat me? 1888 Daily Inter-Ocean 23 Mar. (Farmer), Two boys..were each fined twenty-five dollars... They have been beating boarding-houses all over the West Side. 1891 [see 3 b above]. 1904 Columbus Even. Dispatch 29 June 4 The..people who try to beat the street car conductors out of their fare. |
f. To get ahead of; so, to beat (one) to it: to anticipate in doing something. orig. U.S.
| 1847 E. Brontë Wuthering Heights II. xvii. 327 She would gladly have gathered it [sc. a letter] up..but Hareton beat her; he seized, and put it in his waistcoat. 1898 H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier i. 21 He's watching the rangers,..and will probably try to beat them here. 1904 McClure's Mag. Mar. 556/2 ‘They simply beat us to it,’ complained Barrett, as we rode south. 1937 M. Allingham Dancers in Mourning xvi. 203 Poor old Chloe! I never thought she'd beat me to it. |
g. Slang phr. to have (a person) beat: to be sure of his defeat; hence gen. to have got the better of; to baffle.
| 1916 ‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 30 Why..you can't make your hands do what your tongue says 'as me beat. 1945 Coast to Coast 1944 103 Well, he's got me beat. |
h. Slang phr. can you beat it?: an expression of surprise or amazement.
| 1917 Wodehouse Uneasy Money vii. 79 They pay me money for that!.. Can you beat it? 1926 S.P.E. Tract xxiv. 121 Can you beat it? can you imagine anything worse than that? 1951 H. Hastings Seagulls over Sorrento iii. iii, Oh, boy, can you beat it! Fourteen days leave... And we thought it was gonna be thirty days' cells. |
† 11. trans. To strike together the eyelids (= bat), or the teeth; also intr. either of a person, or his teeth (= chatter). Obs.
| c 1360 Wyclif De Dot. Eccl. 96 [Then] shal antecrist grenne..& bete to gedre wiþ hise teeþ. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 16 Ever beting her eyelyddes togedre. 1597 R. Johnson Sev. Champ. i. xvi. (1867) 127 Who, at the first sight of St. George, beat his teeth so mightily together, that they rang like the stroke of an anvil. 1617 Greene Alcida Wks. (Gros.) IX. 17 My teeth for cold beating in my head. |
12. trans. To flap (the wings) with force so that they beat the air or the sides; also intr. (absol.)
| c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 38 The god of loue anon Beteth hise wynges and farewel he is gon. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 199 These Kites, That bait and beate, and will not be obedient. 1640 W. Hodgson Div. Cosmogr. 101 The Eagle..beating her wings on high. a 1700 Dryden (J.) Thrice have I beat the wing and rid with night About the world. |
13. intr. Of the heart: To strike against the breast; hence, to throb, palpitate, pulsate. (Said also of the pulse, etc. and fig. of passions.)
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 169 And sore sihte, and his heorte biet. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 570 And felte eke, that my hert bete. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 119 We may fele our pulses bete quikly. 1530 Palsgr. 452/2 Fele howe my vaynes beate. 1663 Pepys Diary 19 Oct., Her pulse beats fast. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 37 We have observ'd her [a Black Snail's] Heart to beat fairly for a quarter of an hour after her dissection. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 299 Such Rage of Honey in their Bosom beats. 1785 Mrs. A. Adams Lett. (1848) 260 How the pulse of the ministry beats, time will unfold. 1837 Penny Mag. VI. 212 My heart beat with such transports of joy. 1845 Longfellow Belfrey Bruges v, I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower. c 1863 J. Ingelow Four Bridg. Wks. (1874) 242 Beat high, beat low, wild heart so deeply stirred. |
14. intr. Hence, applied to other pulsating actions and their sounds. a. Said of a watch, etc. b. Music. To sound in pulsations; said of the undulating sound produced by two notes of slightly differing pitch sounding at the same time; see beat n.1 8. c. trans. to beat seconds, etc. See 33.
| 1614 Markham Cheap Husb. ii. iv. 152 Whose voyce (if you lay your eare to the Hiue) you shall distinguish..louder and greater, and beating with a more solemne measure. 1737 M. Green Poems (1796) 71 There let the serious death-watch beat. 1801 Cooper in Phil. Trans. XCI. 442 The trial with the watch was again resorted to; and she could hear it beat. 1819 Rees Encycl. s.v. Beats, And like the human pulse in a fever, the more dissonant are the sounds, the quicker they beat. 1883 Sir E. Beckett Clocks, &c. 295 In a pocket lever watch the balance generally beats in 2–9ths of a second. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 242 If two tones which are within about fifteen cycles per second of each other are played together the combined signal is heard to pulsate or beat at the difference frequency. |
II. Of the action and its effects: to do something by repeated striking.
* To affect the place of by beating.
15. a. trans. To force or impel (a thing) by striking, hammering, etc. With the direction expressed, as to beat down, beat out of, or beat into (a position or thing).
| 1607 Shakes. Timon iii. vi. 123 He gaue me a Iewell th' other day, and now hee has beate it out of my hat. 1660 Boyle Seraph. Love §16 (1700) 95 When we beat the Dust out of a Suit. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (Rtldg.) 18/2 The blow..beat the breath, as it were, quite out of my body. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §238 The stone..was then lowered..and beat down with a heavy wooden maul. |
b. fig. to beat (a thing) into one's head, mind, etc.
| 1533 More Answ. Poyson. Bk. Wks. 1099/2 In suche effectuall wise inculked it, and as who should say, bette into theyr heades. 1556 Veron Godly Sayings (1846) 18 They must beat into y⊇ heartes of the people..studye of concord and true innocencie. 1571 R. Ascham Scholem. (1863) 29 Fond scholemasters, by feare, do beate into them the hatred of learning. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. 74 You may beat the Latine into their heads. 1848 L. Hunt Jar Honey Pref. 15 The classics were beaten into their heads at school. |
16. To drive by blows (a person, etc.) away, off, from, to, into, out of (a place or thing). In beat out of the field, there is perhaps some mixture of sense with 10.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 248 A wyld walterande whal..Þat watz beten fro þe abyme. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame 1150 They were..not awey with stormes bete. 1570 R. Ascham Scholem. (1815) 205 In beating, and driving away the best natures from learning. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. i. 262, I shall beat you to your Trent. 1611 ― Wint. T. i. ii. 33 He's beat from his best ward. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 132 Seeing the..Sultan..beaten out of his kingdome by the Tartar. 1738 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 91, I was beat out of this retreat too. 1885 N. Pocock in Book Lore 28 July, Their version of the Psalms was ignominiously beaten out of the field. |
17. To break, crush, smash, or overthrow by hard knocks; to batter. Cf. 5.
| 1570 T. Wilson Demosthenes 68 Which places he hath so cruelly overthroune and bet to the ground. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 265 Part of the wals we have beaten even with the ground. 1611 Bible Micah iv. 13 Thou shalt beat in pieces many people. 1798 Nelson in Nicolas Disp. III. 2 The man who may have his Ship beat to pieces. |
† 18. to beat the price, beat the market, beat the bargain: to endeavour to bring down the price, to chaffer for the lowest terms; to cheapen; = abate, or bate. Now only in beat down: see 36 d.
| 1592 Greene Art Conny Catch. ii. 6 Hee bet the price of him, bargained, and bought him. 1630 Lord Banians 84 The broaker that beateth the price with him that selleth. 1632 Quarles Div. Fanc. i. lxix. (1660) 29 How loth was righteous Abraham to cease, To Beat the price of lustful Sodoms peace! 1640 W. Habington Hist. Edw. IV, 135 To beate the bargaine of peace to a lower rate. 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. xviii. §3 (1669) 76 How low did Abraham beat the Market for Sodoms preservation? 1667 Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 467 With a little beating the bargain, we came to a perfect agreement. 1785 C. Burney in Parr's Wks. VII. 398, I have been beating the market for them. |
19. a. Naut. (intr.) To strive against contrary winds or currents at sea; to make way in any direction against the wind. to beat about: to tack against the wind. [Cf. nautical use of Icel. beita to bait: some conjecture that beat here represents a lost *bait.]
| 1677 A. Yarranton Engl. Improv. 1 We must lye beating at Sea while the Dutch are at Anchor. 1687 Randolph Archipel. 99 An English ship called the President..had been beating (i.e. striving against the wind) above 6 weeks in the channel. 1748 Anson Voy. i. x. 102 The time of our beating round Cape Horn. 1765 Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 552 Those who still beat about in the boisterous seas of life. 1819 Merc. Mar. Mag. (1860) VII. 291 They could not beat to the anchorage. 1837 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1871) I. 75 The hull of a small schooner came beating down towards us. 1839 Marryat Phant. Ship ix, They beat against light and baffling winds. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast i. 1 We..hove up our anchor, and began beating down the bay. Ibid. xxiii. 69 The wind drew ahead, and we had to beat up the coast. 1841 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) III. 57 The transports..should beat in as near as possible to the shore. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xlvii. (1856) 431 Beating hard to windward. 1858 Merc. Mar. Mag. V. 123 A ship has no chance to beat off. |
b. esp. to beat up against the wind.
| 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5827/1 He beat up to Windward. 1784 King Voy. (1790) V. 1712 We remained several days beating up, but in vain, to regain our former birth. a 1848 Marryat Pirate xiii, From Carthagena, probably, beating up. |
c. trans. said of the ship beating the sea.
| 1718 Pope Iliad xx. 82 The toss'd navies beat the heaving main. 1758 J. Blake Plan Mar. Syst. 58 Others beat the Channel with great danger, rather than put into a port. |
d. trans. said of the mariners beating the ship up or to windward.
| 1839 Sat. Mag. 18 May 192/1 We might continue to beat the ship up. Ibid. 192/2 We..kept beating the ship to windward. |
20. Venery. (intr.) a. To run hither and thither in attempting to escape. b. To take to the water, and go up the stream; also trans. to beat the stream, beat a brook, etc.
| c 1470 Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822) 31 A herte, yf he be chasid, he wil desire to haue a ryuer. As sone as he taketh the Riuer, he soileth..yf he take agayn the streme he beteth or els he beketh. 1575 Turberv. Venerie 241 The Otter..is sayde to beate the Streame. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Hunting, The buck will beat a brook, but seldom a great river, as the hart. 1815 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5) III. 489/1 Beating, with hunters, a term used of a stag, which runs first one way and then another. It is then said to beat up and down. |
** To affect the state or condition of by beating.
21. trans. To work metal or other malleable material by frequent striking; to hammer. † a. To inlay metal, to enchase, or emboss (obs.). b. To shape by beating, to forge, to flatten or expand superficially by beating; also with out. † c. To coin (money). Also fig.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 121 His pynoun Of gold..in which ther was i-bete The Minatour. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. ix, His armes..Branded or bete vpon his coote armure. 1483 Churchw. Accts. St. Mary H. Lond. (Nichols 1797) 96 For betyng and steynynge of the same pinons, 6d. 1611 Bible Isa. ii. 4 They shall beate [1382 Wyclif bete togidere, 1388 welle togider] their swords into plow-shares. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World II. viii. vi. §1. 611 Prerogatiues belonging to a Monarch..To beat Monie. 1640 Hodgson Div. Cosmogr. 71 Beating out chains and nets.. so thin that the eye could not see them. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Gold Leaf, An ounce may be beaten into sixteen hundred leaves each three inches square. 1815 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5) III. 487/2 To forge and hammer; in which sense smiths and farriers say, to beat iron. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing vii. 372 An anvil, a hammer..to beat out and repair any part of the work that may seem to be ill done. 1884 Church Bacon ix. 220 He..beat out his thoughts into shape in talking. |
d. To become by being beaten out.
| 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 219 One particle of ore beats out such leaf! |
22. To make into a powder, or paste, by repeated blows; to pound, pulverize. Generally with a complemental word or phrase.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. xi. 414 Bete all this smal, and sarce it smothe atte alle. 1535 Coverdale Num. xi. 7 The people..gathered it..and beate it in mortars. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 235 Sowen with fine sand well bet. a 1618 W. Bradshaw in Spurgeon Treas. David Ps. xc. 3 Thou beatest him to dust again. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) V. 1772 The bark of the pine-tree, beat into a mass resembling hemp. 1815 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5) III. 487/2 We say, to beat drugs, to beat pepper, to beat spices; that is to say, to pulverize them. 1871 Ruskin Fors Clav. III. 2 Pick the meat clean off and beat it in a marble mortar. |
23. To mix (liquids) by beating with a stick or other instrument; to make into a batter; to switch or whip (an egg, etc.). Also with up.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans C vj a, Take yolkys of egges rawe and whan they be wele beton to geder. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Formul. U iij, The whytes of egges, and oyle of roses bet togyther. 1664 Crt. & Kitch. J. Cromwell 104 Take twenty Eggs, beat them in a dish with some salt. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §237 The mortar..was prepared for use by being beat in a very strong wooden bucket. c 1813 W. Pybus Ladies' Rec. Bk. 26 Beat well up together equal quantities of honey and common water. 1882 Mrs. H. Reeve Cookery & Housek. 320 Take three or more eggs..beat yolks and whites separately. |
24. techn., expressing various operations in the arts; as in Printing, to ink the forms with beaters; in Bookbinding, Paper-making, Flax-dressing, etc.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Beating flax or hemp is an operation in the dressing of these matters, contrived to render them more soft and pliant. Beating among book⁓binders denotes the knocking a book in quires on a block with a hammer, after folding, and before binding or stitching. Beating in the paper-works, signifies the beating of paper on a stone with a heavy hammer with a large, smooth head, and short handle, in order to render it more smooth, and uniform, and fit for writing. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. 524 All pressmen do not beat alike. Ibid. The great art in beating is to preserve uniformity of colour. |
25. To strike so as to cause appendages to come off. to beat a carpet, so as to rid it of dust. to beat a tree, so as to cause its fruit to fall.
| 1611 Bible Deut. xxiv. 20 When thou beatest thine olive trees, thou shalt not go over the boughs again. 1872 Ruskin Fors Clav. II. 16 From a distance it sounds just like beating carpets. |
26. a. To strike (water, bushes, or cover of any kind) in order to rouse or drive game; to scour or range over (a wood, etc.) in hunting. to beat the bush is also fig. as in c.
| a 1400 Cov. Myst. 119 Many a man doth bete the bow, Another man hath the brydde. 1486 Bk. St. Albans D j a, Cast yowre sparehawke in to a tre and beete the bushes. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 141 Whiche..hath..betten the busshe that you may catche the byrde. 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. 19 viii. §1 (1669) 502/2 How shall we get them to come into it? Truly, never, except we first beat the River. a 1667 Wither I loved a Lass, 'Twas I that beat the bush, The birds to others flew. 1707 Refl. Ridicule (1717) ii. 183 [They] can only beat the Bush, and never tend to the Head of the Business. 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece ii. i. 289 The Huntsman..must..beat the Outside of the Springs or Thickets. 1772 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. 1, Beating the thicket for a hare. 1814 Scott Wav. Pref. App. (1842) 30 The cover being now thoroughly beat by the attendants. 1872 Baker Nile Tribut. xvii. 290, I took a few men to beat the jungle. |
| fig. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 9 Together let us beat this ample field. 1790 R. Cumberland West Indian ii. 21 He..has been beating the town over to raise a little money. 1861 Sala Tw. round Clock One a.m. ¶5 When the shadowy hero of the ‘Virginians’ was beating the town with my Lords Castlewood and March. |
b. intr. or absol. Also fig. esp. with about. to beat over the old ground: to discuss topics already treated of.
| 1709 Steele Tatler No. 73 ¶8 Some [dogs] beat for the Game, some hunt it. 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 116 ¶5 We came upon a large Heath, and the Sportsmen began to beat. 1828 Landor Imag. Conv. (1846) 470 The light dog beats over most ground. 1865 Times 2 Jan., They both saw a man beating towards the place where the net was fixed. 1878 H. Smart Play or Pay vii. 149 What do you expect us to do—beat, or carry cartridges? |
| fig. 1713 Guardian (1756) I. 312 Beasts of prey, who walk our streets in broad day-light, beating about from coffee-house to coffee-house. Ibid. II. 83, I am always beating about in my thoughts for something that may turn to the benefit of my dear country. 1738 Pope Epil. Sat. ii. 102 To find an honest man I beat about. 1792 M. Wollstonecraft Rights Wom. v. 225, I do not mean to allude to all the writers who have written on the subject of female manners: it would, in fact, be only beating over the old ground. |
c. to beat about the bush: lit., as in 12; fig. To engage in preliminary operations, esp. to approach a matter in a cautious or roundabout way.
| 1572 Gascoigne Wks. (1587) 71 He bet about the bush, whyles other caught the birds. 1687 T. Brown in Dk. Buckhm.'s Wks. (1705) II. 115 He..often beat about the Bush, to start a Convert in him. 1798 M. Edgeworth Pract. Educ. (1822) I. 268 This ludicrous and perverse method of beating about the bush. 1834 Pringle Afr. Sk. vii. 259 After some hours spent in beating about the bush. 1884 Punch 29 Nov. 256/2 Obliged to be off: Excuse me..But no good beating about the bush. |
27. fig. With up in many constructions, as to beat up for recruits, to beat up the town for recruits, to beat up recruits, and ellipt. to beat up.
| 1696 Brookhouse Temple Open. 21 Beating up for Voluntiers, by a New Predication. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 261 ¶1 A Captain of Dragoons..beating up for Recruits in those Parts. 1758 J. Ray Rebellion 151 They also endeavour'd to levy Men here, and beat up publickly for that Purpose. 1794 Southey Bot. Bay Eclog. ii. Wks. II. 78 A sergeant to the fair recruiting came..to beat up for game. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. iii. v. (1849) 171 He tarried..to beat up recruits for his colony. 1824 Trevelyan in Life Macaulay (1876) I. iii. 146 Macaulay beat up the Inns of Court for recruits. 1879 Lowell Poet. Wks. 418 If a poet Beat up for themes, his verse will show it. 1885 Manch. Exam. 8 July 5/3 Any effort to beat up pecuniary help outside the ranks. |
28. to beat up the quarters of: to arouse, disturb; colloq. to visit unceremoniously.
| 1670 Cotton Espernon i. i. 3 Now beating up one quarter, now alarming another. Ibid. i. ii. 63 An opportunity to beat up a Quarter of twelve hundred Light Horse. 1741 Richardson Pamela II. 179 To..travel round the Country, and beat up their Friends Quarters all the Way. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. II. xxix. 151 His quarters were every moment beaten up by the activity of the French Generals. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. xv. (1865) 119 To beat up the quarters of some of our less known relations. |
29. a. to beat the brains, head, etc.: to think persistently and laboriously. Cf. cudgel v.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin Serm. Tim. 457/2 Yet do the Papistes, but beate the water, when they stand & beate their heads only about ceremonies. a 1593 Marlowe Massacre Paris i. i, Guise..beats his brains to catch us in his trap. 1677 A. Yarranton Engl. Improv. 108, I have beat my Noddle a good while, considering of the reasons. 1686 W. de Britaine Hum. Prud. §1 Never..Beat your Brain about the Proportion between the Cylinder and the Sphere. |
† b. intr. predicated of the brain, etc. Obs.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 182 This..matter in his heart; Whereon his Brains still beating, puts him thus From fashion of himselfe. 1639 Fuller Holy War ii. xliv. (1840) 111 A lawyer's brains will beat to purpose when his own preferment is the fee. |
30. a. to beat a drum, etc.: to strike it so as to produce rhythmical sound. (Formerly with up.)
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks D. (1621) 1381 Beating up his drummes in every quarter. 1647 May Hist. Parl. ii. v. 92 Drums were beat up in London..for Souldiers to be sent to Hull. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 789 E'er hollow Drums were beat. 1832 Hone Year Bk. 1294 Beating a drum, and blowing the hautboy. |
b. to beat an air, beat a tattoo, beat a signal, and hence ellipt., beat a charge, beat a parley, beat a retreat, etc. on the drum. Also fig. to beat a retreat: to retreat.
| 1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4221/2 The Enemy beat a Parley. 1765 Falconer Demag. 409 He bids enraged sedition beat the charge. 1841 Thackeray Ballads, Chron. Drum i. 21 At midnight I beat the tattoo. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 680 A parley was beaten. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown Oxf. III. iv. 74 With the help of his pipe [he] debated with himself the question of beating a retreat. |
c. intr. and absol.
| 1841 Thackeray Chron. Drum 1879 Wks. XXI. 6 He..will never more beat on the drum. 1860 All Y. Round 403 The captain ordered the drummer..to beat to quarters. |
d. Phr. to beat it out: in Jazz (see quots.). Cf. beat n.1 4.
| 1945 L. Shelly Hepcats Jive Talk Dict. 21 Beat it out, play it hot. 1947 The Beat July-Aug. 10/2 Beat it out, play ‘hot’ music with plenty of rhythm in the background. 1948 Penguin Music Mag. V. Feb. 64 In the style of a couple of rhythm boys beating it out. |
31. (Predicated of a drum or other instrument itself): a. intr. = To be beaten, to sound when beaten.
| 1656 Rec. New Haven Col. (1858) 603 The second Drum hath left beating. 1723 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 137, I was glad to hear the drums beat for soldiers. 1758 J. Ray Rebellion 147 The Drums beat to Arms. 1808 Campbell Hohenlinden, But Linden saw another sight When the drums beat at dead of night. 1822 Scott Nigel xxi, Every brass basin betwixt the Bar and Paul's beating before you. 1851 Longfellow Wks. (Rtldg.) 57 And the muffled drum should beat To the tread of mournful feet. 1871 L. Morris Songs Two W. 167 The mad chimes were beating like surf in the air. 1882 Rossetti White Ship in Ball. & Sonn. 85 High do the bells of Rouen beat. |
b. trans. with the sound or signal as obj.: To express by its sound when beaten.
| 1636 Massinger Bashfl. Lov. iv. iii, Nor fife nor drum beat up a charge. 1672 T. Venn Mil. & Mar. Discipl. xxii. b 169 Before the Drum beates a march. 1822 Scott Nigel xxi, With all the brass basins of the ward beating the march to Bridewell before me. 1841 Thackeray Chron. Drum ii. 4 My drum beat its loudest of tunes. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 535 Before him the drums beat Lillibullero. Ibid. xvii. (1871) 289 The drums of Limerick beat a parley. |
c. intr. predicated of the signal, etc. = To be beaten, to be expressed by beating.
| 1816 C. James Milit. Dict. (ed. 4) 178 The Réveillé always beats at break of day. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair II. v. 55 Wake me about half an hour before the assembly beats. |
32. to beat time: to mark musical time by beating a drum, by tapping with the hands, feet, a stick, etc., by striking the air with a baton; also fig. to keep time with.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 301 With Pride to prance; And (rightly manag'd) equal Time to beat. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 157 ¶2 The Part rather of one who beats the Time, than of a Performer. 1807 Robinson Archæol. Græca v. xxiii. 535 The leaders of choruses beat time sometimes with the hand, and sometimes with the foot. 1842 Tennyson Miller's Dau. 67 A love-song I had somewhere read..Beat time to nothing in my head. 1847 Longfellow Ev. (1851) 172 And anon with his wooden shoes beat time to the music. |
33. There is often a combination of the notions of the beating of the heart, the pulse, or chronometer (senses 13, 14) with that of the beating of a drum, the beating of time, etc.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. i. 39 The Bell then beating one. a 1656 Bp. King Poems & Ps. (1843) 38 My Pulse, like a soft Drum, Beats my approch. 1704 Steele Lying Lover i. i. (1732) 23 To all, my Heart and every Pulse beat time. 1769 Maskelyne in Phil. Trans. LIX. 279 A pendulum clock beating half seconds. 1792 M. Wollstonecraft Rights Wom. vii. 278 The heart made to beat time to humanity, rather than to throb with love. 1812 Woodhouse Astron. viii. 53 The seconds which it [a clock] beats. 1839 Longfellow Ps. Life iv, Our hearts..like muffled drums are beating Funeral marches to the grave. |
III. With adverbs, and in phrases.
* With adverbs.
34. beat about: see 26 b. beat away: see 2 and 16.
35. beat back: a. To force back by beating (cf. 15); b. To drive back by force, to repel, repulse; c. To cause to rebound (cf. 16).
| 1593 Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. xi. §21 That our pride..be controlled, and our disputes beaten back. 1621 Molle Camerar. Liv. Libr. i. vii. 23 The souldiers..knew not how to doe to beat backe the enemy. a 1656 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. (1851) 28 We beat back the flame; not with a purpose to suppress it, but to raise it higher. 1715 Desaguliers Fires Impr. 7 By Reflection when they are beaten back from Bodies, against which they strike. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 588 On the eighth a gallant sally of French dragoons was gallantly beaten back. |
36. beat down: a. To force or drive downward by beating or hammering (cf. 15); b. To batter or break down by heavy blows, to demolish, knock down (cf. 17); c. fig. To overthrow (an institution, opinion, etc.); d. To force down (a price) by haggling (cf. 18). With these cf. abate. e. intr. To come down with violence, like rain blown by the wind, the sun's rays, etc. (cf. 6); f. (see 19); g. To reduce by beating (cf. 22).
| a 1400 Destr. Troy xxix. 11931 The knightes..brentyn and betyn doun all the big houses. 1547 Homilies i. Salvation (1859) 30 This doctrine..beateth down the vain glory of man. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany, And finallye to beate downe Satan under our feete. 1586 Warner Alb. Eng. ii. xii. (1597) 53 Fighting to beate downe the Gates. 1602 W. Fulbecke Pandects 28 Democracie hath beene bette doune, and Monarchie established. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 63 The enemy with great slaughter still beaten downe. 1667 Pepys Diary (1877) V. 87 To alter my office by beating down the wall and making me a fayre window there. 1793 Bentham Wks. (1843) IV. 413 Thus monopoly will beat down prices. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvii. (1871) II. 280 One whole side of the castle had been beaten down. c 1850 Rudim. Nav. (Weale) 107 For the purpose of keeping the sea from beating down. 1860 Geo. Eliot in Cross Life (1885) II. xi. 273 The fields that were so sadly beaten down a little while ago are now standing in fine yellow shocks. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §16. 113 The sun..beat down upon us with intense force. |
37. beat in: a. To knock or force in by beating (cf. 15); b. To drive in by force (cf. 16); c. To smash or break in by blows, to batter in (cf. 17); d. To inculcate (cf. 15 b); e. (see 19).
| 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 260 b, Thys should the Monkes and Fryers haue beaten in and set forth. 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxix. (1597) 143 Scots but brag, and he did beate them in. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. vi. 91 An axe-blow..would even beat in a shield. |
38. beat off: a. To drive away from by blows, attacks, volleys (cf. 16, 17); b. (see 19).
| 1650 R. Stapylton Strada's Low C. Warres vii. 41 When the Enemye..attacques the Towne, it cannot beat them off. 1764 Harmer Observ. xiv. i. 37 No rain fell in the day-time, to beat off the workmen. |
c. beat on: (see 2.)
39. beat out: a. To trace out a path by treading it first, to lead the way (cf. 3); b. To knock or force or shape out by beating (cf. 15); c. To drive out by force or fighting (cf. 16); d. To hammer out into a bulge, to extend by hammering (see 21); e. To thresh (corn); f. To work out or get to the bottom of (a matter, laboriously), to ‘hammer’ out; g. (in U.S.) To overpower completely, to exhaust; h. To measure out by beats (cf. 33).
| 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades 293 To beate out the causes of these calamities. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. iii. 58 They shall beat out my braines with billets. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine 14 a, Themystocles..began to beat out what they intended. 1611 Bible Ruth ii. 17 So she gleaned in the field vntill euen, and beat out [1388 Wyclif beet with a ȝerde, and schook out; Coverd. shaked out] that she had gleaned. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. xxi. (1627) 244 The..labours of others, which beat out the..sense of every word and phrase. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 446 A stone That beat out life. 1667 Sir R. Moray in Lauderd. Papers (1885) II. 42 Wee beat out the bottom of the matter. 1672 Bp. Lloyd Fun. Serm. Bp. Wilkins 39 Sometimes beating out new untravell'd ways, sometimes repairing those that had been beaten already. 1775 Fielding Miser v. iv, Lovegold..I'll beat out your brains. 1780 G. Clinton in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) III. 132 They were so beat out with fatigue. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. i. ii. iv, The clock Beats out the little lives of men. |
i. U.S. colloq. To defraud (a person or institution) of money, etc. by deception, blackmail, or other dishonest means (cf. 10 d).
| 1851 Oquawka (Illinois) Spectator 5 Feb. 1/7 He then went to Cincinnati where he beat another man out of $12. 1904 [see sense 10 d above]. 1929 W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 255, I reckon you'll know now that you cant beat me out of a job. 1944 E. M. Kahn Cable Car Days 82 One never attempted to ‘beat’ the conductor out of his fare. |
j. N. Amer. colloq. To get ahead of or prevail over (another), esp. in competition; to anticipate, improve upon (cf. 10 a).
| 1893 Outing May 155/2 The act of starting consisted in beating out the pistol. 1903 A. D. McFaul Ike Glidden xxii. 190 Since I have driven him I've become satisfied that he can beat out any horse in the State. 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 22/4 Revson..easily beat out Ferrari's Jim Adams for third place. 1985 Sci. Amer. June 112/3 This arrangement gives an overhang approximately 1.1679 times a domino's long dimension, barely beating out the previous arrangement. |
40. beat together: (see 23.) beat up: a. To tread up by much trampling (cf. 3); b. To make way against the wind or tide (see 19 b); c. To bring a soft or semi-fluid mass to equal consistency by beating (see 23); d. (see 30, 31 b); e. to beat up for recruits, etc. (see 27); to beat up quarters (see 28).
| 1882 Daily Tel. 24 June, At the commencement of play the wicket was moderately good, but it was beaten up considerably during the latter half of the Australian innings. Mod. ‘We had an egg beaten up and biscuits.’ |
f. To knock about savagely, to thrash. orig. U.S. Cf. beating vbl. n. 1 b.
| 1907 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp (1916) 157, I wouldn't have a man..that didn't beat me up at least once a week. 1912 Mulford & Clay Buck Peters i. 24, I found that I'd beat up a couple of policemen when I was drunk. 1928 E. Wallace Flying Squad i. 14, I don't say they intended killing him, but they certainly beat him up. 1938 E. Ambler Cause for Alarm ix. 155 ‘Is he drunk?’.. ‘No—beaten up.’ 1939 War Illustr. 21 Oct. 190 We heard the police in the room next door beating up another prisoner. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Aug. 450/2 Mr. Szabo was captured by the AVO and beaten up. |
g. to beat it up: = to ‘whoop it up’ (see whoop v. 1 e). slang.
| 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Oct. 713/2 James, the son, grows up, ‘beats it up’ a little in Paris, and finally gets a job in Malaya. 1958 Daily Tel. 1 July 11/1 What sort of noise did the neighbours complain about? Did the Purdoms and their friends beat it up a little in the evenings? |
h. Aeronaut. slang. (See quots.)
| 1940 Bulletins from Britain 11 Dec. 3 in Amer. Speech (1941) XVI. 76/1 To beat up, to dive on to a friendly flying field as practice, a gesture of triumph or sheer joie-de-vivre. 1942 T. Rattigan Flare Path 1, I put the old Wimpey into a dive and beat him up—you know, pulled out only a few feet above his head and stooged round him. |
** In the phrases:
41. to beat the bounds: to trace out the boundaries of a parish, striking certain points with rods, etc., by way of a sensible sign patent to witnesses. to beat goose, or (Naut.) beat the booby: to strike the hands under the armpits to warm them. † to beat the hoof, beat it on the hoof: to go on foot (obs.). to beat the knave out of doors, name of an obsolete game of cards.
| 1570 B. Googe Popish Kingd. iv. (1880) 53 (margin) Procession weeke. Bounds are beaten. 1687 T. Brown Saints in Up. Wks. 1730 I. 78 We beat the hoof as pilgrims. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. /412 They all beated it on the hoof..to London. 1816 Singer Hist. Cards 260 A childish pastime with cards played..under the title of ‘Beat the Knave out of doors.’ 1879 Sala in Daily Tel. 21 July, You and your mates were provided with long willow wands with which, at appointed spots, to beat the bounds. 1883 Times 15 Mar. 9/6 The common labourers at outdoor work were ‘beating goose’ to drive the blood from their fingers. |
42. Horsemanship. Technical phrases: to beat a curvet, beat the dust, beat upon a walk, beat upon the hand, etc. (See quot.)
| 1607 Markham Caval. i. (1617) 16 To manage, to beat a coruet and such like. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Beat, A horse is said to beat the dust, when at each stroke or motion, he does not take in ground or way enough with his fore⁓legs..He beats the dust at curvets, when he does them too precipitantly, and too low..He beats upon a walk, when he walks too short, and thus rids but little ground, whether it be in streight lines, rounds or passings. Ibid., Chack in the Manege is taken in the same sense, as beat upon the hand; it is applied to a horse, when his head is not steady, but he tosses up his nose and shakes it all of a sudden, to avoid the subjection of the bridle. |
43. Phrases treated under senses 1–33:
To beat about the bush (see 26 c), the air (1 c), a bargain (18), black and blue (1 b), one's brains (29), the breast (1), a brook (20), the bush (26), a carpet (25), a charge (30 b), a door (1), a drum (30), the ears (7), one's head (29), hollow (10), the market (18), money (21), out of the field (16), a parley (30 b), a path (3), the price (18), a retreat (30 b), seconds (33), the ship (19 d), small (22), the stream (20), the streets (3), time (32), to arms (30), to ribbons, to sticks (10), a track (3), a tree (25), up quarters (28), the water (1 c, 26), the wind (1 c), the wings (12).
▸ to beat a person at his (also her, etc.) own game: to defeat or outdo a person in his or her chosen activity or field of expertise, esp. by using his or her methods.
| 1849 Alton (Illinois) Telegraph & Democratic Rev. 8 June 1/7 Scraps beat him, though, at his own game. 1877 Spirit of Times 24 Nov. 452/2 Mr. Sexton called at that office, before his late match, and said that he should beat me at my own game—around the table—and that he was ready at any time to discount me on a table named by him. 1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage xlviii. 240 That would be all very well if you could beat Manet at his own game, but you can't get anywhere near him. 1963 M. Benson Afr. Patriots 211 The A.N.C...still hoped that they [sc. the United Party] might learn they could never return to power by trying to beat the nationalists at their own game. 2003 Wired July 140/1 You're never going to beat Bill Gates at his own game... But if you own the first successful space-mining company, you'll make him look like a pauper. |
▸ to beat the clock: to complete a task within a given time; to perform a task quickly; (also) to save time.
| 1885 Morning Oregonian (Portland) 20 June 2/6 The ability to beat the clock is confined to a few. 1912 Times 2 Sept. 10/4 The Middlesex bowlers were always masters of the situation, and in the end they beat the clock—their real task—with half an hour to spare. 1925 Woman's World Apr. 31/1 (advt.) Tempting dishes that beat the clock. Only a minute is needed to mix Raisin Rice Pudding and it's most inexpensive. 1976 Western Mail (Cardiff) 27 Nov. 20/5 Bangor City have failed to beat the clock in their attempt to sign a second newcomer to appear against..Matlock Town at Farrar Road today. 2004 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen (Nexis) 22 June 4 b, The Arizona Legislature is rushing to beat the clock and deliver to voters a comprehensive overhaul of the state's trust-land system. |
▸ to beat the system: to find a way of getting round rules, regulations, or other means of control. Cf. system n. 1c(a).
| 1893 Chicago Daily Tribune 27 Sept. 4/1 (headline) To beat the system. Sixth ward Democrats oppose free-and-easy primaries. 1904 Times 1 Nov. 9/5 The power to buy..on that system can injuriously affect no one, except conceivably one or two large importers, who can always easily beat the system. 1930 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 24 704 The regular Republican organization has been experimenting, but has apparently not yet found a way to ‘beat the system’. 1990 J. Eberts & T. Ilott My Indecision is Final i. 7 Goldcrest had beaten the system for more than six years, but it couldn't beat it for ever. 2002 Washington Post 25 Nov. c8/1 There is the rush some underage drinkers get when they make it into bars—the rush of beating the system. |
▸ orig. U.S.to beat the count: † (a) to cheat or get ahead by cheating (obs. rare); (b) (in Boxing and similar sports) (of a fighter who has been knocked down by an opponent) to stand up and be ready to resume fighting before the referee has completed a count of ten, to avoid losing by a knock-out.
| 1897 Daily Republican (Decatur, Illinois) (Electronic text) 18 Mar. If there's any flimflamming, counterfeiting of tickets or any other attempt to beat the count the whole contract will be thereby canceled. 1915 Washington Post 11 July (Sporting section) 2/2 Eddie fell on his face and just failed to beat the referee's count. 1953 Times 27 Mar. 2/6 He gets full credit for beating the count and battering Walker into submission so effectively. 1993 Fighters Aug. 85/1 In round three things changed dramatically when Seb Johnson threw a perfect spinning back fist knocking Hurst down. Although Hurst tried to beat the count, it was clear that he was unable to continue. 2004 Truth (Auckland) (Nexis) 25 June 37 He clambered up to beat the count, fell back over and that was it. |
▸ slang (orig. U.S.). to beat one's (also the) meat: (of a male) to masturbate. Cf. meat n. 6b, to beat off v. at Additions.
| 1948 N. Mailer Naked & Dead ii. iii. 86 Go beat your meat. 1964 in R. D. Abrahams Deep down in Jungle ii. v. 22 The hundred women he put in there all fucked to death..this motherfucker over there beating the meat. 1970 E. Thompson Garden of Sand (2001) 137 Go beat your meat, old man! 1980 J. O'Faolain No Country for Young Men viii. 167 What did people do in a place like this? Beat their meat probably. Goddamn place was probably soggy with onanistic sperm. 2003 Guardian (Nexis) 31 July 10 Should all these outfits be banned lest some perv go home and beat his meat while thinking of them? |
▸ to beat off v. intr. slang (chiefly U.S.). Of a male: to masturbate.
| 1962 P. Mandel Mainside vii. xvii. 357 You know what the worst thing you can do at Annapolis is? Not beat off in your sack or cut classes or dick the commandant's daughter. Lie. That's the worst thing. 1978 J. Irving World according to Garp ii. 32 The boys were beating off, in turn, and rushing..to the microscopes in the infirmary lab. 1989 M. Amis London Fields xiv. 269 And meanwhile, masturbate about me, Keith. Beat off about me. 2001 Village Voice (N.Y.) 25 Dec. 124/2 Confronted with a tease, a real man feigns indifference, hands her her clothes, and gets her out of his apartment as quickly as possible. Then he beats off and goes to bed. |
▪ II. beat, v.2
(biːt, beɪt)
[Either the direct derivative, or immediate source, of beat n.3, q.v.
(Marshall in 1796 (Eng. Dial. Soc. B. vi. p. 70) seems to identify this with beat v.1; others have tried to identify it with beet v. (ME. béten), either in the sense of improving the soil, or of kindling, or feeding fire, which seems phonetically inadmissible, even if the sense were more probable.)]
To slice off the rough sod from uncultivated or fallow ground, with a beat-axe or breast-plough, in order to burn it, for the purpose at once of destroying it, and of converting it into manure for the land. Hence beating vbl. n.; and the compound beating-axe = beat-axe (under beat n.3).
| 1534 Fitzherb. Husb. §8 They must go beate theyr landes with mattockes as they do in many places of Cornewayle, and in som places of Deuonshyre. 1602 Carew Cornwall 196 About May, they cut vp all the grasse of that ground which must newly be broken, into Turfes, which they call Beating. 1796 Marshall Econ. W. Eng. I. 324 Performed with a Beating-axe—namely, a large adze—some five or six inches wide, and ten or twelve inches long; crooked and somewhat hollow or dishing... This operation is termed hand-beating. 1808 Monthly Mag. Dec. 422 To beet ground: to pare off the turf in order to burn it (Cornwall and Devon). |
▪ III. beat, n.1
(biːt)
[f. beat v.]
1. a. A stroke or blow in beating.
| c 1615 Fletcher Valent. ii. iii, For thus we get but years and beets. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. i. 253 The Smith Divine, as with a careless beat, Struck out the mute creation at a heat. 1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. xxiii, Instrument of touch, Or beat, or breath. |
b. Ballet. = battement.
| 1913 C. D'Albert Dancing 6 Ailes de Pigeon... These two beats are performed with both feet off the floor. 1931 C. W. Beaumont Dict. Techn. Terms Classical Ballet 14 The noun entrechat is qualified..according to the number of crossings required; in this calculation the beats by each foot are included. 1950 Ballet Ann. IV. 69 An admirable facility for the execution of beats. 1952 Kersley & Sinclair Dict. Ballet Terms 17 Beats, the dancer executes a beat in the course of a jumping step when he strikes both calves sharply together so that they rebound. The legs are then ready to beat again, to change places before beating again, or to continue the movement. |
2. Fencing. A particular blow struck upon the adversary's sword or foil.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., There are two kinds of beats; the first performed with the foible of a man's sword on the foible of his adversary's..The second..is performed with the fort of a man's sword on the foible of his adversary's..with a jerk or dry beat. 1833 Regul. Instr. Cavalry i. 153 The smarter the beat is given, the more effectual they will be as ‘Guards’ and ‘Parries.’ |
3. A stroke upon a drum, the striking of a drum with the sound produced; the signal given thereby; also in drum-beat. Sometimes fig.
| 1672 T. Venn Mil. & Mar. Discipl. i. iv. 45 There are these several Beates [of the Drum] to be taken notice of as military signs. 1687 Dryden St. Cecilia's Day iii, The double double double beat Of the thundering drum. 1791 Paine Rights M. 44 By the beat of drum a proclamation was made. 1816 C. James Milit. Dict. (ed. 4) 178/2 The Church Call;..a beat to summon the soldiers of a regiment, or garrison, to church. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvii. (1871) II. 284 Every man should be under arms without beat of drum. c 1850 Longfellow My lost Youth, The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er. |
4. ‘The movement of the hand or baton, by which the rhythm of a piece of music is indicated, and by which a conductor ensures perfect agreement in tempo and accent on the part of the orchestra or chorus; also, by analogy, the different divisions of a bar or measure with respect to their relative accent.’ Grove Dict. Mus. (1880). Also spec., the strongly-marked rhythm of jazz and popular music.
| 1911 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 279/1 Simple time is that in which the normal subdivision of its beats is by two, whether the number of the beats themselves is duple or triple. Compound time is that in which the beats are regularly divided by three. 1933 S. Mougin in Hot News (1935) June 16/1 Swing..is the balance found between the strong beat and the weak beat or beats in any bar. 1939 W. Hobson Amer. Jazz Music iii. 49 To make this matter of beat and rhythm, so far as jazz is concerned, somewhat clearer for the layman, it may be pointed out that often in a jazz performance the only instruments playing regularly on the beat are, say, the bass drum and string bass; the rest are playing rhythms variously suspended around the beat. 1954 L. Armstrong in Grove's Dict. Mus. IV. 600/2 Anything played with beat and soul is jazz. 1958 B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz in Amer. xxv. 349 Beat, jazz time; more meaningful to jazz musicians as an honorific description of rhythmic skill (‘he gets a fine beat’) than as a description of an underlying 2/4 or 4/4..or any other time. 1959 Punch 19 Aug. 60/2 Miss A likes it [sc. a pop record]. Oh, yes, it's got that beat and will sell. 1964 Daily Tel. 20 Feb. 22/6 Who dares to say that the cult of the beat groups by the young for the young is not vastly superior to the flood of pulp literature and horror comics pumped out for them by their commercially minded elders? 1967 Crescendo Dec. 33/3 The strange sounds emanating from an upstairs room revealed just who the Jazz Messengers were—yes, a beat group! |
5. Any measured sequence of strokes or blows, or the sound thereby produced; the march of measured sound or of verse. Also beat-rhythm (see quot.).
| 1795 Southey Vis. Maid Orleans iii. 37 The regular beat Of evening death-watch. a 1822 Shelley Cloud, The beat of her aëry feet, Which only the angels hear. 1848 Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton 66/2 The measured beat of the waters against the sides of the boat. 1851 Longfellow Village Blacksm., You can hear him swing his heavy sledge With measured beat and slow. c 1873–4 G. M. Hopkins Note-books (1937) 235 We have said that rhythm may be accentual or quantitative, that is go by beat or by time... The Saturnian..must have been chanted, as the beats often disagree with the word-accents. This beat-rhythm allows of development as much as time-rhythm. 1885 Contemp. Rev. Apr. 555 Though it scarcely can be said to indicate the beat of the iamb. |
6. The rhythmical throbbing of the heart or pulses; sometimes in comb., as pulse-beat.
| 1755 Johnson Dict. s.v., The beat of a pulse. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 674/1 The flow from a vein is accelerated after each beat of the heart. 1877 O. W. Holmes Fam. Record Poems (1884) 319 In every pulse-beat of their loyal sons. 1877 M. Foster Phys. i. iv. 97 Regarded as a pump its (i.e. the Heart's) effects are determined by the frequency of the beats, by the force of each beat, by the character of each beat. |
7. a. In a clock or watch: The stroke of a pallet of the pendulum or balance on a tooth of the scape wheel; the sound thus produced; also the regular succession of such strokes. Hence beat-pin. Phr. in beat or out of beat, off the beat: making a regular or irregular succession of strokes.
| 1706 Phillips, Beats in a watch or clock. 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v. Beat, The interval between two successive beats, in a clock or watch. 1828 Arnott Physics I. 90 In storm and in calm its [the chronometer's] steady beat went on. 1860 E. B. Denison Clocks, Watches, & Bells (ed. 4) 101 The proper way to try whether a clock is in beat is to let the pendulum swing only just far enough for the escape, and then you will easily hear if the beats are unequal. 1874 Beckett Ibid. (ed. 6) 73 When a clock with any kind of anchor escapement..sounds ‘out of beat’, it wants either one side lifting or the crutch bending. 1883 Sir E. Beckett Clocks, etc. 131 In very large clocks the pallet tails are too thick to bend for adjustment of the beat, and these eccentric beat pins are used. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 32 Beat Pins [are] small screws to adjust the position of the crutch with relation to the pendulum. 1889 Hasluck Clock Jobber's Handybk. v. 94 Put on the pendulum, and set the clock ‘in beat’. The meaning of ‘in beat’ is, that the escape takes place at equal distances each side of the pendulum's centre of gravity... When ‘in beat’ the tick sounds regular, and nearly equal, differences of the drop making it slightly uneven. |
b. fig.
| 1865 J. H. Newman Gerontius ii. 14 How still it is! I hear no more the busy beat of time. |
8. a. A throbbing or undulating effect taking place in rapid succession when two notes not quite of the same pitch are sounded together; the combined note alternates rapidly between the minimum of sound produced by the mutual interference of their vibrations, and the full effect produced by the coincidence of their vibrations.
| a 1733 North Lives I. 247 How it [the organ at Exeter] is tuned, whether by measure or the beats, we were not informed. 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v. Beat, The beats of two dissonant organ pipes, resemble the beating of the pulse to the touch. 1834 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. x. vi. (1849) 154. |
b. Radio. The periodic variation of amplitude produced by the combination of oscillations of different frequencies. Also attrib.
| 1918 W. H. Eccles Wireless Telegr. Gloss., Beats occur when two oscillations of differing frequencies occur simultaneously in the same system. The gradual change of phase difference causes the amplitudes to be opposed at one instant, and to concur at a later instant, with all the intermediate stages in the interval; the time between two successive oppositions, i.e. between two instants of minimum resultant amplitude, is called the time of a beat. The beat frequency is therefore equal to the difference between the frequencies of the two oscillations. Ibid., Beat Reception (or Interference Reception) is the process of making high-frequency oscillations received by an antenna audibly evident by combining with them other oscillations of suitably different frequency. 1921 L. B. Turner Wireless Telegr. 74 During a signal, the two oscillations are combined, with the interference or beat effect familiar in acoustics when two musical tones of slightly different pitch are mingled. 1942 Electronic Engin. XV. 120 It is often necessary to retune the oscillator after a short while to obtain the correct beat frequency. |
9. Music. ‘The name given in English to a melodic grace or ornament, but with considerable uncertainty as to which particular ornament it denotes, the word having been variously applied by different writers.’ Grove Dict. Mus. (1880).
| 1803 Rees Cycl. s.v., Beat in music is a grace. |
10. a. The round or course habitually traversed by a watchman, sentinel, or constable on duty. [It is uncertain to which sense of beat v. this is to be referred: cf. prob. to 3, but cf. 26 b, 41.]
| 1721 New-Eng. Courant 2–9 Oct. 2/2 The several Clerks of the Train-Bands made a strict Enquiry at all the Houses within their respective Beats. 1825 Hood Ode Graham xxxvii, I hear the watchmen on their beats, Hawking the hour about the streets. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVIII. 335 Every part of the metropolis is divided into beats. c 1860 Thackeray Ball. Policem. (1879) 251, I paced upon my beat With steady step and slow. |
b. A course habitually traversed by any one; sometimes fig., esp. in phrase, out of one's beat: not in one's sphere or department.
| 1786 W. Cowper Let. 1 May (1904) III. 27 The Chesters, the Throckmortons, the Wrightes, are all of them good-natured agreeable people, and I rejoice, for your sake, that they lie all within your beat. 1836 Gen. P. Thompson Lett. Represent. 153 A highwayman could never get more than the value of his beat. 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz i. 31 The costermongers repaired to their ordinary ‘beats’ in the suburbs. 1839 Carlyle Chartism iv. (1858) 21 Europe, Asia, Africa, and America lay somewhere out of their beat. 1854 Mrs. Gaskell Let. 27 Oct. (1966) 318 She [sc. Florence Nightingale] said, ‘The prostitutes come in perpetually—poor creatures staggering off their beat!’ 1862 Sat. Rev. 15 Mar. 295 Ask him why anything is so and so, and you have got out of his beat. 1872 ‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It vi. 28 His [sc. superintendent of a stage company's] beat or jurisdiction..was called a ‘division’. 1937 N. Marsh Vintage Murder xxii. 245, I am very busy— consulting-room hours in town, and a wide country beat. 1965 New Statesman 7 May 715/2 The world is James Cameron's beat; he has visited every country but three covering the great events of our time, from the Allied victory in Germany to Vietnam, for press and television. |
c. U.S. (See quot. 1857.)
| [1736 in Smithtown Rec. (N.Y., 1898) 229 The place called the Horse beat.] 1834 Audubon Ornith. Biog. II. 433 When we went to look for the other [moose]..we found that he had..gone to the ‘beat’. 1857 Harper's Mag. Nov. 819/1 The bear goes to and from his den..by certain paths called ‘beats’... A bear will use the same ‘beat’ for years. |
d. ‘In Alabama and Mississippi, the principal subdivision of a county; a voting-precinct’ (Cent. Dict. 1889).
| 1860 J. F. H. Claiborne Sam. Dale x. 166 Governor Holmes appointed me..commissioner to take the census and organize beats or precincts. 1893 Congress. Rec. Feb. 2298/1 The evidence shows that his tickets were brought to the polls by friends of Turpin, and peddled there by them. This is shown to have been the case at Steep Creek beat,..at Hopewell beat, in Loundes County. 1896 Ibid. Mar. 2788/1 Testimony was taken to show that fraud was committed in certain beats,—the River beat, Union, and one or two others. |
e. The stretch of country assigned to a musterer (of sheep or cattle). Austral. and N.Z.
| 1873 J. E. Tinne Wonderland of Antipodes 38 As they complete each flock, it is turned over to a shepherd, who would drive it off with the aid of his dogs to a beat; possibly ten or twenty miles distant. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 9 Beat, the area patrolled by a sheep or cattle musterer. 1953 B. Stronach Musterer on Molesworth ii. 13 Boy ..hunted them all [sc. the sheep] on to the next man's beat. 1958 J. Pascoe N.Z. Sheep-Station 22 Getting the sheep off the mountain is more difficult. Usually one man and his dogs will climb well above the sheep to what is known as the ‘top beat’... The man half way down the slopes has what is called the ‘middle beat’. |
11. A tract over which a sportsman ranges in pursuit of game.
| 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. i. i. §1 The frauds..are enough to make him cautious before engaging a beat. 1884 Weekly Times 29 Aug. 14/4 On the first day's beat he saw one brace of barren birds. |
12. In sailing: One of the transverse courses in beating to windward.
| 1880 Daily Tel. 7 Sept., Anxious moments follow next on the beat to windward. |
13. beat-up of quarters: assault, reconnaissance.
| 1870 Daily News 18 Oct., The beat-up of the enemy's quarters..took place after all. |
14. The action or an act of beating in order to rouse game.
| 1876 A. A. A. Kinloch Large Game Shooting II. i. 2 The howdah elephants on which the sportsmen are mounted are distributed at intervals along the line, and as the beat progresses, some commotion may be observed as various species of game are roused. 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 84/2 The Sloth Bear..except when driven out in the course of a beat..will not be observed during the day. |
15. U.S. (chiefly dial.). a. That which surpasses, excels, or outdoes (something). Only in phr. to see, or hear, the beat (of).
| c 1827 R. M. Bird News of Night in E. H. O'Neill Cowled Lover (1941) 147 Did you ever see the beat o' that? 1833 S. Smith Major Downing 129, I never see the beat of it. 1847 Great Kalamazoo Hunt (Philad.) 100 (Th.), You don't tell me so! Did I ever hear the beat o' that! 1878 Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. x. 86 That Bill is saassy enough to physic a hornbug. I never see the beat of him. 1888 ‘C. E. Craddock’ Broomsedge Cove v. 80 Waal, sir, eatin' supper by a tallow dip—who ever hearn the beat! 1907 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp (1916) 209 Count Fernando Mazzini was his name. I never saw the beat of him for elegance. |
b. to get a beat on: (see quot.).
| 1888 Farmer Americanisms s.v., To get a beat on is to get the advantage of... As used by thieves and their associates, to get a beat on one..also implies that the point has been scored by underhand, secret, or unlawful means. |
c. A success scored against rivals by a reporter or newspaper; an item of news secured and published in advance of competitors.
| 1873 Harper's Mag. July 231/1 One of these ‘enterprising’ individuals secured his first ‘beat’ by riding in..on a horse not his own, and taking news of the disaster to Philadelphia by rail, before an injunction was laid on the transmission of the truth. 1887 Detroit Tribune 27 June 3/2 They finally succeeded, and cheered lustily as the Ocean King steamed for New York with a big ‘beat’ for the Times. The office was safely reached, and the ‘beat’ appeared that morning. 1905 E. Wallace Four Just Men i, The obedient reporter went forth. He returned in an hour in that state of mysterious agitation peculiar to the reporter who has got a ‘beat’. 1940 Graves & Hodge Long Week-end xvii. 283 The newspapers paid well for ‘beats’, as ‘scoops’ were now called. 1969 S. Greenlee Spook who sat by Door xvii. 152, I have a beat for you... That is the right word, beat? They stopped using scoop in the movies in the thirties. |
16. [f. beat ppl. a.] An idle, worthless, or shiftless fellow. (Cf. dead-beat n.2) U.S.
| 1865 Canteen Songster (1868) 26 Before ‘this cruel war’ broke out, he was what's termed ‘a beat’. 1887 J. D. Billings Hard Tack & Coffee 95 (Th.), The original idea of a beat was that of a lazy man or a shirk who would by hook or by crook get rid of all military or fatigue duty that he could. 1887 Harper's Mag. Dec. 107/1 The inevitable squad of ‘beats’ with bleary eyes and wolfish faces infesting the doorways of the saloons. 1903 Boston Herald 19 Aug., He would not loan money to policemen or firemen, stating that they were the biggest beats in the country. |
▸ to miss (also skip) a beat. a. To cease functioning or performing as expected for a very short period; to stop for an instant, to falter briefly; (of an engine) to cut out momentarily.
| 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 152/1 Immediately before arrest the heart may beat much faster than normally..and in the lower animals the auricles may be observed occasionally to miss a beat. 1928 H. Garland Back-trailers from Middle Border vi. 73 I've lately noticed an irregularity in my heart action... It goes along very well for a time, then skips a beat. 1949 K. A. Porter Let. 6 July (1990) v. 376 The flight there and back was sublime, perfect weather and no engine missed a beat. 1961 Scots Mag. Mar. 486/2 She paused, and the Diesel missed a beat; before it regained its regular chug Jimmy was on deck. 1990 E. Feldman Looking for Love xxii. 290 Lights flickered and appliances skipped a beat. Con Ed declared a brownout. 1993 Business Central Europe June 13/3 The political crisis caused an immediate 1.5% drop in the value of Polish debt abroad and the dollar/zloty rate skipped a beat, but things calmed down as soon as it became clear that Mr Walesa was planning no change at the helm. |
b. fig. (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.). In negative constructions, as not to miss a beat and variants: to react effectively and unfalteringly, esp. in demanding circumstances, or when making a transition from one activity to another; (also) to respond without hesitation, esp. by delivering a witty or cutting riposte.
| 1937 H. Landau Enemy Within v. 58 There was a worthy successor to take over the work if von Papen, and the cogs at the War Intelligence Service Center..kept turning without missing a beat. 1952 C. McKinley Uncle Sam in Pacific Northwest viii. 357 When the misalliance ended a year or so later..each [agency] resumed its operation as an independent entity without skipping a beat. 1967 N. Mailer Why are we in Vietnam? x. 188 When he eating, you could ring a fire siren under his nuts and he never miss a beat in the gourmandize. 1980 N.Y. Times Mag. 16 Mar. 37 She has recently given birth to a baby boy. They tease her: ‘For a feminist like yourself, you should have had a girl.’ Without missing a beat, she replies, ‘In this society, it's still better to be a man.’ 1991 Time 27 May 18/2 He handled an unusually heavy crunch of covers and major breaking stories without missing a beat. 2001 Premiere June 72 Asked to comment on being named Male Star of the Year..[he] didn't miss a beat. ‘I feel it's [too] gender-specific,’ he quipped. |
▸ one's heart misses (also skips) a beat and variants: one experiences a momentary feeling of excitement, fear, or panic; cf. one's heart leaps into one's mouth (throat) at heart n. 54b.
| 1912 D. G. Phillips Price she Paid i. 39 ‘Why, we and they are only a step apart,’ she said to herself in amazement... And then her heart skipped a beat and her skin grew cold and a fog swirled over her brain. 1939 T. Scudder Jane Welsh Carlyle xxxv. 381 Jane's heart missed a beat as she saw the dog make directly for the path of the vehicle. 1950 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 149/1 The sight that met my eyes made the old ticker miss more beats than it had done when Martin clamped his gun on the back of my neck. 1959 P. H. Johnson Unspeakable Skipton (1961) 20 Daniel's heart lost a beat. Someone was going to recognize him at last. 1975 D. Levertov Freeing of Dust iii. 16 One night last summer in a crowded room..My heart missed a beat—it seemed I saw you In the far corner. 1998 E. Brimson Hooligan lxiii. 173 Billy's heart skipped a beat as he scooted past the back entrance of the cop shop. |
▸ orig. Theatre (later more generally, esp. as a script direction). A momentary pause in speech and action (as before a line of dialogue, a gesture, etc.), esp. indicating a shift in mood or pace. In extended use: a brief pause, a moment of hesitation.
Perhaps arising from the earlier use in theatrical contexts to describe the measure of spoken verse (see sense 5): see quot. 1930, which refers to the performance of Shakespeare's plays.
| [1930 E. G. Craig Henry Irving 74 His movements were all measured. He was forever counting—one, two, three—pause—one, two—a step, another, a halt, a faintest turn, another step, a word. (Call it a beat, a foot, a step, all is one.)] 1941W. K. Miner in J. Gassner Producing the Play b. i. 267 One sentence might follow directly on another, but a pause, a look, a beat taken at the right moment may add immeasurable value in terms of another's reaction. 1967 T. Stoppard Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead 33 Ros: He's not himself, you know. Guil: I'm him, you see. (Beat.) Ros: Who am I then? 1973 D. Morrow Maurie 111 There is just a beat and then, deeply moved, Lisa breaks away from Carole. 1990W. Kelley Homesick Blues in T. Macmillan Breaking Ice (1990) 396 [He] comes around from the side of the old lady's house, shades his eyes, watches H. L. Mencken for a beat, goes back around the house. 2000D. Chase in Sopranos Scriptbk. (2001) (3rd Ser.) Episode 2. 252 She didn't want a remembrance of any kind. What does that tell you? (beat) She didn't think anyone would come. |
▪ IV. beat, n.2
(biːt, dial. beːt)
Forms: 5 bete, 6 beit, 7 bayt, 8 bait, 8– beat, 9 beet.
[Of uncertain form and etymology; the 15th c. bete and 18th c. frequent bait, point to beat as the 16th c. and normal modern form, bait being only a phonetic variant at a time when the pronunciation was still (beɪt) as in great, and beet being a modern phonetic spelling since the pronunc. became (biːt) as in meat, meet. Possibly from the vb. beat, in sense of a ‘beating,’ or quantity to be beaten at once; see beat v.1 24, and cf. stack, etc.]
A bundle of flax or hemp made up ready for steeping.
| c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 60 The Lint ryped, the Churle pulled the Lyne, Ripled the bolles, and in beites it set; It steeped in the burne, and dryed syne, And with ane beittel knocked it and bet, Syne swyngled it well, and hekled in the flet. a 1500 Cath. Angl. 30 note, A bete as of hempe or lyne, fascis. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 567 Hempe..bound vp in bundles, which they do call bayts. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Hemp, Laying Bait upon Baits till all be laid in, and so that the Water covers 'em all over. 1744 D. Flint Raising Flax ix. 11 The lint is..tied up in large but manageable Beats or Sheaves. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 29 Flax..a week after midsummer, is pulled and bound in sheaves or beats. 1847 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. ii. 453 The flax..must be tied up in small sheaves or beets. |
▪ V. beat, n.3
(biːt, beɪt)
Forms: also 7 baite, 7–9 bait, 8–9 bate.
[Of doubtful phonetic form, and unknown origin. The modern Devonsh. pronunciation is (beɪt) variously spelt bait, bate, beat. Although bait occurs constantly in Gervaise Markham, beat(e was the spelling of the vb. with Fitzherbert in 1534, Carew in 1602, and of the n. with Worlidge in 1681, and is apparently the proper form. The vb. is found nearly a century before the n., and may thus be its immediate source, but on general grounds, the converse is more likely.
The suggestion that beat is another form of peat, is incompatible with the history of the latter, q.v. The ON. beit ‘pasturage,’ beiti ‘pasture,’ also ‘heath, ling,’ would barely do for the sense, and phonetically would give bait, not beat. See beat v.2]
The rough sod of moorland (with its heath, gorse, etc.), or the matted growth of fallow land, which is sliced or pared off, and burned (at once to get rid of it and to make manure), when the land is about to be ploughed. See Eng. Dial. Soc. B. vi. p. 70. to beat-burn, also burn-beat: to treat land in this way. to lie to beat: to lie fallow till covered with a matted growth of grass and weeds which may be thus pared off and burned.
| 1620 Markham Farewell to Husb. (1649) 22 After you have thus burnt your baite and plowed up your ground. ― Ibid. ii. xxi. (1668) 115 To break up Pease-earth, which is to lye to bait. 1796 Marshall Econ. W. Eng. I. 323 Beat, the roots and soil subjected to the operation of ‘burning beat.’ 1830 A. E. Bray Fitz of F. xvi. (1884) 137 The burning of bate, as it is called; a mode of manuring land, known elsewhere by the name of denshiring. 1864 E. Capern Devon Provincialism, Beat or Bate, the spine of old fallow lands. 1885 F. T. Elworthy (in letter) A field is described as ‘all to a beat’ when it has become matted with weeds, especially couch-grass or twitch. |
Comb. beat-axe (in Devonsh. dial. bidax, bidix), the axe or adze with which the beat is pared off in hand-beating: see beating-axe under beat v.2; beat-borough, beat-hill, one of the heaps in which the beat is collected and burned; beat-field, a field in which the beat is being burned.
| 1602 R. Carew Survey of Cornwall 19 b A little before plowing time, they scatter abroad those Beat-boroughs..upon the ground. 1813 C. Vancouver Agriculture of Devon 92 It is utterly impossible, at a distance, to distinguish a village from a beatfield. 1885 F. T. Elworthy (letter) The operation is performed with a bidiks (beat-ax), or more commonly with a breast-plough called a spader. |
▪ VI. beat, n.4
see beat generation.
▪ VII. beat, ppl. a.
(biːt)
For forms see beat v.1
1. Shortened form of beaten, often used as pple.; as adj. chiefly in the sense: Overcome by hard work or difficulty; common in the expression dead-beat. a. literally. Obs., arch., or dial.
| c 1400 Rowland & Ot. 417 A Sercle of golde That bett was wonder newe. c 1440 Bone Flor. 182 Hur clothys wyth bestes and byrdes wer bete All abowte. 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. v. xxiii. (1579) 113 The storm-beate English ship. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §239 A proper quantity of the beat mortar was liquefied. c 1817 Hogg Tales & Sk. IV. 13 A little bowl of beat potatoes and some milk. |
b. figuratively in current use. Also beat out, beat up, worn out, exhausted; dead beat: see dead beat ppl. a.; beat generation: see as separate entry.
| 1758 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (Salem, Mass.) XVIII. 92 Some was very much beat out by their march from Northampton. 1832 Moore Jerome on E. ii. Wks. (1862) 558 Till fairly beat the saint gave o'er. 1833 S. Smith Major Downing 127 At last he got so beat out he couldn't only wrinkle his forehead and wink. 1868 Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 334, I was again dead beat at the end. 1879 Howells L. Aroostook (1882) I. 20 ‘Is the young lady ill?’ ‘No..a little beat out, that's all.’ 1914 Daily Express 2 Sept. 3/1 We were all beat up after four days of the hardest soldiering you ever dreamt of. 1945 L. Shelly Hepcats Jive Talk Dict. 7 Beat, worn out. 1954 P. Frankau Wreath for Enemy iii. iv. 191, I was too beat and hazy to take anything in. 1956 J. Hearne Stranger at Gate xii. 92 ‘You look beat up.’.. ‘I couldn't look as beat up as I feel.’ |
2. beat elbow, beat hand, beat knee: injuries incident to miners caused by the jarring and friction of the pick. Cf. miner's elbow s.v. miner 6 b.
| 1905 Daily Chron. 17 Mar. 5/6 Judge Greenwell decided that ‘beat hand’ could not be classed as an accident... He found similarly in a claim with respect to ‘beat knee’. 1907 Ibid. 17 May 5/5 ‘Beat hand’, ‘beat knee’, and ‘beat elbow’. 1935 A. J. Cronin Stars look Down iii. xii. 588 He worked with this committee on nystagmus, beat knee and the incidence of silicosis in non-metalliferous mines. |