I. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
beat a hasty retreat
▪
I saw my aunt coming and beat a hasty retreat .
beat crime
▪
new measures to beat car crime
beat its wings (= move them in a regular way while flying )
▪
The female beats her wings as fast as 500 times a second.
beat off/fight off competition
▪
She beat off competition from dozens of other candidates to get the job.
beaten senseless
▪
He had been beaten senseless .
beating drums
▪
1,000 people marched, beating drums and carrying flags.
beat/overcome/defy the odds (= succeed despite great difficulties )
▪
The baby, born sixteen weeks too early, defied the odds and is celebrating her first birthday.
break/beat a record (= do better or be greater than an existing record )
▪
He broke the world record twice.
deservedly beaten
▪
Arsenal were deservedly beaten 2–1 by Leeds.
fat/phat beats (= music that sounds good )
▪
Check out these fat beats.
force/frighten/beat etc sb into submission
▪
Napoleon threatened to starve the country into submission.
knock/beat sb unconscious
▪
Levin was knocked unconscious by the impact.
let yourself be beaten/persuaded/fooled etc
▪
I stupidly let myself be persuaded to take part in a live debate.
pulse beat
▪
The rhythm was steady, as regular as a pulse beat.
sb's pulse beats
▪
His pulse began to beat with a fierce rhythm.
sb’s heart beats
▪
Her heart was beating fast.
set/break/beat a world record
▪
He set a new world record for the marathon.
stab/beat/kick sb to death
▪
He was stabbed to death in an attack outside his home.
take a hammering/beating (= be forced to accept defeat or a bad situation )
▪
Small businesses took a hammering in the last recession.
the rain beats/lashes (= it falls or hits something with a lot of force )
▪
Isabel listened to the rain beating down.
the sun beats down/blazes down (= shines with a lot of light and heat )
▪
The sun beats down on us as we work.
whip/whisk/beat the cream (= make it thicker by beating it )
▪
Whip the cream until it is thick and light.
wings beat
▪
Their great wings beat slowly.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
bush
▪
Don't beat about the bush .
▪
A whole army of Girl Scouts out beating the bush .
▪
Eliot did not beat about the bush .
▪
Neither will beat the bushes for new ways to earn or save money.
▪
She winced at their infelicities, at the clumsy way they beat about the bush .
▪
It was Moua who organized housing for Hmong newcomers, Moua who beat the bushes for jobs.
▪
I am not a person to beat about the bush .
▪
Let us stop beating about the bush .
death
▪
Women are told it's prostitution or a beating , or death .
▪
Why, given what had happened, I might as well have beaten Papa to death with a club.
▪
So she locked them in a coat closet where they beat each other half to death in the dark for twenty minutes.
▪
In the minutes that followed, McDuffie was beaten to death by a group of Dade County police officers.
▪
We don't see gays being beaten to death in our country because of their sexuality.
▪
In Westport, a 3-year-old boy was beaten to death after wetting his pants, authorities allege.
▪
The 76 year old pensioner was beaten to death last Thursday in the pet shop where he worked part time.
▪
And when he himself was nearly beaten to death .
drum
▪
Now, when Tallis listened hard, she could hear a drum being beaten as a warning.
▪
Gary reaches for a drum and beats it briefly and harshly.
▪
Trumpets sounded, drums beat , whips cracked, mules squealed, and teamsters cursed.
▪
The jungle drums were beating again.
▪
Trumpets blew all the time, and drums were beating .
▪
In every village drums were beating , soldiers marching.
egg
▪
Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the melted margarine and the beaten egg .
▪
Add the remaining flour mixture to the shortening mixture alternating with the beaten egg .
▪
Sieve the cottage cheese, or pur e in a food processor or liquidiser and beat in the egg and milk.
▪
Combine beaten egg with mayonnaise in small bowl.
▪
Season, remove from the heat and beat in the egg . 7.
▪
At medium speed, beat in eggs , one at a time, beating for two minutes after each addition.
▪
Cream the margarine and sugar and beat in the eggs .
▪
Brush lightly with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar, if desired.
head
▪
And you can't do that by beating them over the head with clichéd, didactic behaviour.
▪
The members know perfectly well that they will be beaten over the head with any yes vote at the next election.
▪
Talking to Rourke Deveraugh was like beating her head against a hard wooden post.
▪
Passing beneath it, Crevecoeur was reminded of a violent storm of hail beating upon his head .
▪
Elsewhere, individual protesters were being held down while Mosley's guards beat them over the head and about the face.
▪
They skimmed low, passing so close to Simon that their wings beat at his head .
▪
She said he tied her up and beat her in the head with a hammer.
heart
▪
Piers took a step towards her, and she felt her body tense and her heart begin to beat quickly.
▪
Just being there made my heart beat faster.
▪
People can take part by doing any physical activity that makes the heart beat faster and lasts for 15 minutes.
▪
My head was resting against his chest and I felt his heart beating against my eye and cheek.
▪
The heart beats thick, Big trout muscle out of the dead cold.
▪
His heart beat dully at the very thought of what he was about to do.
▪
And in Dusseldorf police said a member of the Republican party suffered a heart attack after being beaten up by demonstrators.
▪
Tots fell silent; birds stopped chirping; you could hear hearts beating amid the chattering teeth.
path
▪
The students - and their professors - beat a path to his door.
▪
Most of the sites the company has in mind to visit are far off any beaten path .
▪
It has become such an attraction that local tour operators are beating a path to its door.
▪
Soon it is not going to be so easy to get off the beaten path .
▪
The company is now just waiting for the world to beat a well-worn path to its door.
▪
To say that Crenshaw is off the beaten path is an understatement.
▪
They were beating a clear path .
▪
I called on the Birth Grandmother to help me beat a path through the honyaek to the windows.
record
▪
If the backs had taken all their chances, Quins might have beaten Gloucester's record 80-point Cup win over Exeter.
▪
You hear the first two beats of a record and you kind of get a sense of it.
▪
We want to beat his record and any others that are going ... and to win for his family.
▪
History is taking a beating and sacrosanct tour records are being kept in pencil.
▪
It took more than a thousand participants to make it happen, beating the previous record by thirty-five.
▪
The 11-month total beats the previous full-year record , set in 1993.
▪
Jurassic Park beat the record set by Batman Returns, which took £31.8m in its first four days.
▪
He cleared 2.68m to beat the previous record of 2.67m set by Paul Parker of Cumbria.
retreat
▪
Then, thanking him, I beat a hasty retreat to the sacristy door and knocked.
▪
Appointees interviewed repeated a familiar theme: They all loved their jobs but are beating a retreat without regret.
▪
Any females which are not ripe will either stay away or beat a hasty retreat .
▪
With decks awash with diesel we beat a hasty retreat back to Lerwick.
▪
They were forced to beat a hasty retreat and arrived at their rendezvous with Morris's patrol on time.
▪
Objects and fantasy are then used not as a means of venturing out, but to beat a retreat .
▪
He beat a hasty retreat when he spotted me approaching, but it was not hasty enough.
team
▪
The home team has not beaten the Scarlets for some dozen matches and should still have their work cut out to win.
▪
But UMass still won on the road against a team that should have beaten it.
▪
In another very close team event Wallasey just beat the Menai Straits one design club by a quarter point.
▪
The team that beat them by a point at the Forum on Jan. 2.
▪
Look at the teams we've beaten - nothing special, any of them.
▪
White acknowledged his team simply beat itself, in all areas of the game.
▪
With everyone emerging from the League Cup tie unscathed Coyle will no doubt field the team that beat Monaghan.
▪
On any given Sunday, the regular teams can beat you.
wife
▪
I had a case of a Pathan family where the husband used to beat his wife all the time.
▪
It doesn't matter if they beat their wife .
▪
For instance, it's the custom to beat the wife .
▪
And Symington stopped beating his wife , too.
▪
Another top star of the seventies, David Soul, beat up his wife .
▪
Edward Laufer did not testify, but has denied beating his wife .
▪
The court was told that he beat his wife unconscious before pushing her and her car into a river.
▪
A man who beats his wife is still human.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a stick to beat sb with
bang/beat the drum for sb/sth
beat a retreat
▪
Officials beat a hasty retreat as reporters shouted questions.
▪
Appointees interviewed repeated a familiar theme: They all loved their jobs but are beating a retreat without regret.
▪
Objects and fantasy are then used not as a means of venturing out, but to beat a retreat .
beat sb at their own game
beat sb to a pulp
▪
Attempting to beat some one to a pulp would be described in these terms.
▪
But when Alvin came back I thought he was going to beat me to a pulp .
beat sb/sth to the punch
▪
Hitachi has beaten their competition to the punch with a new line of mainframe computers.
▪
Bernie, it might be a good idea if you beat them to the punch .
▪
Master Yehudi had beaten me to the punch again.
beat the pants off sb
▪
She beat the pants off me last time we played.
▪
He is aware of his competitors-and he beats the pants off them.
beat the rap
beat/kick etc the shit out of sb
▪
I had to pretend, because he was beating the shit out of me.
▪
Like in the Teamsters, where they beat the shit out of people in parking lots.
beat/knock the (living) daylights out of sb
beat/surprise/scare the hell out of sb
▪
And I said, beats the hell out of me.
▪
Eddie knows this, and it scares the hell out of her.
▪
It scared the hell out of me.
▪
Just to make the move scared the hell out of me.
▪
Statistics like that scare the hell out of me, and they must scare a lot of CEOs too.
▪
There is no stopping planned randomness, and that scares the hell out of us.
▪
Today, he scares the hell out of a lot of Republicans.
▪
Tornadoes are not fascinating to me; they scare the hell out of me.
beat/thrash etc sb to within an inch of their life
keep/beat time
▪
At one stage, he joined her, pacing with her, beating time with one hand.
▪
In employment systems, after all, people are not mustered to play together as their manager beats time .
▪
It is not true that elsewhere they obey it without beating it, since one beats time wherever choruses are sung.
▪
It starts lean and mean, just a slash of overdriven guitar with tambourine keeping time .
▪
The lord began to tap his foot and beat time with his hand against his thigh.
▪
They are likened by Leibniz to a series of clocks that manage to keep time without being connected.
▪
They were often unable to keep time to within fifteen minutes a day and were frequently out of order.
▪
Tidy time keep time on your side and all your bills in order with this hand clip clock.
knock/beat sb/sth into a cocked hat
▪
Cavalli had no difficulty knocking the work of other composers into a cocked hat.
off the beaten track/path
▪
Appenzell really is off the beaten track.
▪
Away from the Algarve, it's not hard to get off the beaten track.
▪
Soon it is not going to be so easy to get off the beaten path.
▪
They are off the beaten track.
▪
To say that Crenshaw is off the beaten path is an understatement.
▪
Unusual interests, off the beaten track experiences should be of interest.
▪
We kept off the beaten track, away from those traders who fixed high prices, for Shallot knew where to go.
▪
Yet for most visitors from overseas, Windisch with its treasure is definitely off the beaten track.
sb's heart misses/skips a beat
soundly defeated/beaten/thrashed
▪
In Hayward, a proposed library improvement tax was soundly defeated.
▪
Synthonia are now the only side without a win after they were soundly beaten at Blackhall.
▪
The Republicans were soundly defeated in the South, even in places where there were voting black majorities.
▪
They were led by a fanatical chieftain named Yusuf and Alfonso was soundly defeated at the battle of Sagrajas.
▪
When it came up for a vote in March, it was soundly defeated.
take a beating
▪
`I hear you took a bit of a beating last night.' 'Yeah, we lost 12 -2.'
▪
The Mets took a real beating last Saturday.
▪
A principle as old as ancient tribes and almost as remotely understood, diplomatic immunity is taking a beating this week.
▪
But since then, software stocks have taken a beating .
▪
He took a beating today but he played his butt off.
▪
History is taking a beating and sacrosanct tour records are being kept in pencil.
▪
Liverpool was taking a beating , and rumours were free for the asking on every street corner and in every food queue.
▪
Looks like egg-laying has taken a beating .
▪
Technology stocks of all sizes continued to take a beating .
▪
They took a beating on the Mudchute.
turn/beat swords into ploughshares
turn/beat swords into ploughshares
win (sth)/beat sb fair and square
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Beat the cream into the fruit puree, pour into bowls, and chill.
▪
Beat the eggs and pour in the milk.
▪
Back then, girls were told that they could never beat a boy at tennis.
▪
Brazil beat Italy in the final.
▪
Carry on beating the eggs with a fork until they're light and fluffy.
▪
Children were beating on different kinds of drums.
▪
Do you think the Socialists will beat the Liberals in the election?
▪
He used to come home drunk and beat my mother.
▪
In a separate bowl, beat together the oil and flour.
▪
It's not a particularly good job, but it certainly beats being unemployed.
▪
It was clear that she had been badly beaten by her husband.
▪
Jake's home-made burgers beat anything you can get at fast-food restaurants.
▪
Lewis was a tough boxer, and a hard man to beat .
▪
My Father used to let me beat him at chess.
▪
No one has figured out how to beat the problem of rodents eating the crops.
▪
On the ultrasound machine, I could see the baby's heart beating strongly.
▪
Osborne wanted to beat the living daylights out of Flanagan.
▪
Police officers had beaten the man with their batons.
▪
Slaves were sometimes beaten with sticks or even whipped.
▪
Teachers are no longer allowed to beat students who misbehave.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
But UMass still won on the road against a team that should have beaten it.
▪
Convention delegates were beaten, stabbed, and shot promiscuously by the police.
▪
Following the incident with the boy a Dig Daddy style man had gone to his door and beaten him up.
▪
Hey, it beats a bake sale.
▪
My torso and my wrists felt as though Edna had beaten them with sticks.
▪
Whatever Messrs Mondale, Foot and Kinnock said about raising taxes in the 1980s, they were going to be beaten anyway.
II. noun
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
beat sb/sth to the punch
▪
Hitachi has beaten their competition to the punch with a new line of mainframe computers.
▪
Bernie, it might be a good idea if you beat them to the punch .
▪
Master Yehudi had beaten me to the punch again.
beat/kick etc the shit out of sb
▪
I had to pretend, because he was beating the shit out of me.
▪
Like in the Teamsters, where they beat the shit out of people in parking lots.
beat/knock the (living) daylights out of sb
beat/surprise/scare the hell out of sb
▪
And I said, beats the hell out of me.
▪
Eddie knows this, and it scares the hell out of her.
▪
It scared the hell out of me.
▪
Just to make the move scared the hell out of me.
▪
Statistics like that scare the hell out of me, and they must scare a lot of CEOs too.
▪
There is no stopping planned randomness, and that scares the hell out of us.
▪
Today, he scares the hell out of a lot of Republicans.
▪
Tornadoes are not fascinating to me; they scare the hell out of me.
beat/thrash etc sb to within an inch of their life
keep/beat time
▪
At one stage, he joined her, pacing with her, beating time with one hand.
▪
In employment systems, after all, people are not mustered to play together as their manager beats time .
▪
It is not true that elsewhere they obey it without beating it, since one beats time wherever choruses are sung.
▪
It starts lean and mean, just a slash of overdriven guitar with tambourine keeping time .
▪
The lord began to tap his foot and beat time with his hand against his thigh.
▪
They are likened by Leibniz to a series of clocks that manage to keep time without being connected.
▪
They were often unable to keep time to within fifteen minutes a day and were frequently out of order.
▪
Tidy time keep time on your side and all your bills in order with this hand clip clock.
knock/beat sb/sth into a cocked hat
▪
Cavalli had no difficulty knocking the work of other composers into a cocked hat.
off the beaten track/path
▪
Appenzell really is off the beaten track.
▪
Away from the Algarve, it's not hard to get off the beaten track.
▪
Soon it is not going to be so easy to get off the beaten path.
▪
They are off the beaten track.
▪
To say that Crenshaw is off the beaten path is an understatement.
▪
Unusual interests, off the beaten track experiences should be of interest.
▪
We kept off the beaten track, away from those traders who fixed high prices, for Shallot knew where to go.
▪
Yet for most visitors from overseas, Windisch with its treasure is definitely off the beaten track.
sb's heart misses a beat
▪
When Caroline smiled at Eddie, his heart missed a beat.
sb's heart misses/skips a beat
soundly defeated/beaten/thrashed
▪
In Hayward, a proposed library improvement tax was soundly defeated.
▪
Synthonia are now the only side without a win after they were soundly beaten at Blackhall.
▪
The Republicans were soundly defeated in the South, even in places where there were voting black majorities.
▪
They were led by a fanatical chieftain named Yusuf and Alfonso was soundly defeated at the battle of Sagrajas.
▪
When it came up for a vote in March, it was soundly defeated.
the stress/accent/beat falls on sth
▪
In the word "spoken," the stress falls on the first syllable.
turn/beat swords into ploughshares
turn/beat swords into ploughshares
walk the beat
▪
Sympathetic typifications of Catholics do little to lessen the obvious problem of being attacked while walking the beat.
▪
You'd be walking the beat and you'd see some kid with his backside hanging out of his trousers.
win (sth)/beat sb fair and square
without missing a beat
▪
Cuomo answered the reporters' questions without missing a beat.
▪
They can present, explain, and deliver our solutions without missing a beat.
▪
Woody Harrelson came in for the late Nicholas Colasanto without missing a beat.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Jessica moved her hips to the beat of the music.
▪
journalists covering the political beat
▪
Their new song has a good beat that you can dance to.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
But beat duty was of course not the only punitive experience for the rank-and-file policeman.
▪
But for some beat constables, there was another possibility.
▪
I could hear the rapid beat of his heart and him breathing all funny.
▪
Multiply the number of beats by six to get the number of heart beats per minute.
▪
My heart lurched and seemed to miss a beat , but I went on reading calmly, though the print was blurred.
▪
Police on the beat are feeling increasingly vulnerable.
▪
The beat was the only genuinely musical element in it, of course.
▪
The more rum punch, the better the beat !
III. adjective
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a stick to beat sb with
bang/beat the drum for sb/sth
beat a retreat
▪
Officials beat a hasty retreat as reporters shouted questions.
▪
Appointees interviewed repeated a familiar theme: They all loved their jobs but are beating a retreat without regret.
▪
Objects and fantasy are then used not as a means of venturing out, but to beat a retreat .
beat sb at their own game
beat sb to a pulp
▪
Attempting to beat some one to a pulp would be described in these terms.
▪
But when Alvin came back I thought he was going to beat me to a pulp .
beat sb/sth to the punch
▪
Hitachi has beaten their competition to the punch with a new line of mainframe computers.
▪
Bernie, it might be a good idea if you beat them to the punch .
▪
Master Yehudi had beaten me to the punch again.
beat the pants off sb
▪
She beat the pants off me last time we played.
▪
He is aware of his competitors-and he beats the pants off them.
beat the rap
beat/kick etc the shit out of sb
▪
I had to pretend, because he was beating the shit out of me.
▪
Like in the Teamsters, where they beat the shit out of people in parking lots.
beat/knock the (living) daylights out of sb
beat/surprise/scare the hell out of sb
▪
And I said, beats the hell out of me.
▪
Eddie knows this, and it scares the hell out of her.
▪
It scared the hell out of me.
▪
Just to make the move scared the hell out of me.
▪
Statistics like that scare the hell out of me, and they must scare a lot of CEOs too.
▪
There is no stopping planned randomness, and that scares the hell out of us.
▪
Today, he scares the hell out of a lot of Republicans.
▪
Tornadoes are not fascinating to me; they scare the hell out of me.
beat/thrash etc sb to within an inch of their life
keep/beat time
▪
At one stage, he joined her, pacing with her, beating time with one hand.
▪
In employment systems, after all, people are not mustered to play together as their manager beats time .
▪
It is not true that elsewhere they obey it without beating it, since one beats time wherever choruses are sung.
▪
It starts lean and mean, just a slash of overdriven guitar with tambourine keeping time .
▪
The lord began to tap his foot and beat time with his hand against his thigh.
▪
They are likened by Leibniz to a series of clocks that manage to keep time without being connected.
▪
They were often unable to keep time to within fifteen minutes a day and were frequently out of order.
▪
Tidy time keep time on your side and all your bills in order with this hand clip clock.
knock/beat sb/sth into a cocked hat
▪
Cavalli had no difficulty knocking the work of other composers into a cocked hat.
sb's heart misses a beat
▪
When Caroline smiled at Eddie, his heart missed a beat.
sb's heart misses/skips a beat
soundly defeated/beaten/thrashed
▪
In Hayward, a proposed library improvement tax was soundly defeated.
▪
Synthonia are now the only side without a win after they were soundly beaten at Blackhall.
▪
The Republicans were soundly defeated in the South, even in places where there were voting black majorities.
▪
They were led by a fanatical chieftain named Yusuf and Alfonso was soundly defeated at the battle of Sagrajas.
▪
When it came up for a vote in March, it was soundly defeated.
take a beating
▪
`I hear you took a bit of a beating last night.' 'Yeah, we lost 12 -2.'
▪
The Mets took a real beating last Saturday.
▪
A principle as old as ancient tribes and almost as remotely understood, diplomatic immunity is taking a beating this week.
▪
But since then, software stocks have taken a beating .
▪
He took a beating today but he played his butt off.
▪
History is taking a beating and sacrosanct tour records are being kept in pencil.
▪
Liverpool was taking a beating , and rumours were free for the asking on every street corner and in every food queue.
▪
Looks like egg-laying has taken a beating .
▪
Technology stocks of all sizes continued to take a beating .
▪
They took a beating on the Mudchute.
the stress/accent/beat falls on sth
▪
In the word "spoken," the stress falls on the first syllable.
turn/beat swords into ploughshares
turn/beat swords into ploughshares
walk the beat
▪
Sympathetic typifications of Catholics do little to lessen the obvious problem of being attacked while walking the beat.
▪
You'd be walking the beat and you'd see some kid with his backside hanging out of his trousers.
win (sth)/beat sb fair and square
without missing a beat
▪
Cuomo answered the reporters' questions without missing a beat.
▪
They can present, explain, and deliver our solutions without missing a beat.
▪
Woody Harrelson came in for the late Nicholas Colasanto without missing a beat.