1. (imp.) of Beat.

2. (p. p.) of Beat.

3. (v. t.) 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.

4. (v. t.) To punish by blows; to thrash.

5. (v. t.) To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game.

6. (v. t.) To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.

7. (v. t.) To tread, as a path.

8. (v. t.) To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.

9. (v. t.) To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with out.

10. (v. t.) To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.

11. (v. t.) 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.

12. (v. i.) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.

13. (v. i.) To move with pulsation or throbbing.

14. (v. i.) To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force; to strike anything, as, rain, wind, and waves do.

15. (v. i.) To be in agitation or doubt.

16. (v. i.) To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.

17. (v. i.) To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.

18. (v. i.) To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.

19. (v. i.) 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.

20. (n.) A stroke; a blow.

21. (n.) A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse.

22. (n.) 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.

23. (n.) A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament.

24. (n.) A sudden swelling or reinforcement of a sound, recurring at regular intervals, and produced by the interference of sound waves of slightly different periods of vibrations; applied also, by analogy, to other kinds of wave motions; the pulsation or throbbing produced by the vibrating together of two tones not quite in unison. See Beat, v. i., 8.

25. (n.) A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat.

26. (n.) A place of habitual or frequent resort.

27. (n.) A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; -- often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat.

28. (a.) Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted.

Thesaurus Entries