English Explanatory Dictionary

beat

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A stroke; a blow.
  2. A pulsation or throb.
  3. A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.
  4. A rhythm.
  5. The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
  6. The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
  7. The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency.
  8. A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
  9. An area of a person's responsibility, especially
  10. The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.
  11. The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
  12. An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
verb
  1. To hit; to strike.
  2. To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
  3. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
  4. To move with pulsation or throbbing.
  5. To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
  6. To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
  7. To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
  8. To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
  9. To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
  10. To indicate by beating or drumming.
  11. To tread, as a path.
  12. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
verb
  1. simple past tense of beat
  2. past participle of beat
adj
  1. Exhausted.
  2. Dilapidated, beat up.
  3. Having impressively attractive makeup.
  4. Boring.
  5. Ugly.
noun
  1. A beatnik.
adj
  1. Relating to the Beat Generation.

Pronunciation

bēt /biːt/ en-us-beat.ogg bĕt /bɛt/

Word forms

beat beats beating beated beaten no-table-tags glossary beatest beateth more beat most beat

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-der.? Proto-Germanic *bautaną Proto-West Germanic *bautan Old English bēatan Middle English beten English beat Inherited from Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch boten, botten, butten (“to push, strike”), German boßen (“to thrash”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (*bautan, “to beat, strike”) (whence, probably, Galician and Portuguese botar (“to expel; to throw”)); also Latin fūstis (“club, cudgel, knobbed stick, staff”), *fūtō (“to strike”), Albanian bahe, hobe (“sling”), Armenian բութ (butʻ), բույթ (buytʻ, “thumb”).

Synonyms

newsbeat knock pound strike hammer whack abuse aggress assail assault attack beat beleaguer bepommel beset besiege bombard charge come down on dust up fall on fall upon hit impugn invade lay into lay siege let someone have it light into onfall onset overrun pommel rush set the dogs upon set upon storm strike at wap whap bang baste batter belabor blow boom-boom buffet butt calcitrate cuff dab dash dowse feeze fetch one a blow flap give toco kick impact jerk

Related words

backing track

Derived words

afrobeat afterbeat backbeat back beat bad beat Balearic beat barber beats beatbox beat cop beat for nothing beat frequency oscillator Beatles beatless beatmaker beatmatch beatmatching beatmix beat panel beat parry beatscape beatscript beat sheet beatsman beatsmith beaty big beat blast beat bluebeat Bo Diddley beat breakbeat character beat counterbeat cross-beat D-beat deadbeat downbeat dramatic beat drumbeat earnings beat easybeat Eskibeat Eurobeat forebeat freakbeat heartbeat hoofbeat hyperbeat inbeat interbeat march to a different beat march to the beat of a different drum march to the beat of a different drummer march to the beat of one's own drum march to the beat of one's own drummer match beat for beat Merseybeat midbeat misbeat miss a beat new beat

Translations

Azerbaijani: ritm Bengali: তাল Bulgarian: такт Bulgarian: ри́тъм Dutch: beat Dutch: ritme Dutch: puls Finnish: tahti Finnish: vastuualue Finnish: tontti Finnish: kotipaikka German: Beat German: Takt Italian: ritmo Italian: tempo Latin: rhythmus Macedonian: такт Malay: rentak Māori: taki Māori: ūngeri Polish: rytm Romanian: ritm Russian: разме́р Russian: ритм Spanish: ritmo Spanish: sector Spanish: ámbito Swedish: rytm Ukrainian: ритм Ukrainian: такт French: secteur
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