noun a stroke; a blow.
2. beat ·impf of beat.
3. beat ·p.p. of beat.
4. beat ·vt to tread, as a path.
5. beat ·vi to be in agitation or doubt.
6. beat ·adj weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted.
7. beat ·vi to move with pulsation or throbbing.
8. beat ·vi a place of habitual or frequent resort.
9. beat ·vi to make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
10. beat ·vt to dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.
11. beat ·add. ·noun a smart tap on the adversary's blade.
12. beat ·vt to punish by blows; to thrash.
13. beat ·add. ·noun the act of one that beats a person or thing.
14. beat ·vi a round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat.
15. beat ·vi to make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.
xvi. beat ·vi to strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
xvii. beat ·add. ·noun one that beats, or surpasses, another or others; as, the beat of him.
xviii. beat ·noun a transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament.
xix. beat ·vi a cheat or swindler of the lowest grade;
often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat.
xx. beat ·noun a recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse.
xxi. beat ·vt to exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
xxii. beat ·vi to make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
xxiii. beat ·vi to come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force; to strike anything, as, rain, wind, and waves do.
xxiv. beat ·vt to overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, ·etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.
xxv. beat ·vt to scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, ·etc., for the purpose of rousing game.
xxvi. beat ·add. ·noun the act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
xxvii. beat ·add. ·noun the act of obtaining and publishing a piece of news by a newspaper before its competitors; also, the news itself; a scoop.
xxviii. beat ·noun the rise or fall of the hand or foot, marking the divisions of time; a division of the measure so marked. in the rhythm of music the beat is the unit.
xxix. beat ·vt to cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud;
often with out.
xxx. beat ·vi to sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect;
said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
xxxi. beat ·vt to strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon; as, to beat one's breast; to beat iron so as to shape it; to beat grain, in order to force out the seeds; to beat eggs and sugar; to beat a drum.
xxxii. beat ·vt to give the signal for, by beat of drum; to sound by beat of drum; as, to beat an alarm, a charge, a parley, a retreat; to beat the general, the reveille, the tattoo. ·see alarm, charge, parley, ·etc.
xxxiii. beat ·noun a sudden swelling or reenforcement of a sound, recurring at regular intervals, and produced by the interference of sound waves of slightly different periods of vibrations; applied also, by analogy, to other kinds of wave motions; the pulsation or throbbing produced by the vibrating together of two tones not quite in unison. ·see beat, ·vi, 8.