beat

beat

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of beat in English

English Online Dictionary. What means beat‎? What does beat mean?

English

Etymology 1

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”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to hit, strike”).

Compare Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“I strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʻ)).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bēt, IPA(key): /biːt/
  • Homophone: beet
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

beat (plural beats)

  1. A stroke; a blow.
  2. A pulsation or throb.
  3. (music) 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.
    1. (music) The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
  5. The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
  6. The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency
  7. (authorship) A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
  8. (by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially
    1. The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.
    2. (journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
      Synonym: newsbeat
  9. (dated) An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
  10. (colloquial, dated) That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.
  11. (dated or obsolete, Southern US) A precinct.
  12. (dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
    1. (Australia) An area frequented by gay men in search of sexual activity. See gay beat.
  13. (archaic) A low cheat or swindler.
  14. (hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
  15. (fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
  16. (slang) A makeup look; compare beat one's face.
Derived terms
Descendants
  • → Pennsylvania German: biede
Translations
See also
  • (piece of hip-hop music): backing track

Verb

beat (third-person singular simple present beats, present participle beating, simple past beat or (nonstandard) beated, past participle beaten or (colloquial) beat or (nonstandard) beated)

  1. (transitive) To hit; to strike.
    Synonyms: knock, pound, strike, hammer, whack; see also Thesaurus:attack, Thesaurus:hit
  2. (transitive) To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
  3. (intransitive) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
  4. (intransitive) To move with pulsation or throbbing.
  5. (transitive) To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
  6. (intransitive, nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
  7. (transitive) 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. (transitive, UK, in haggling for a price of a buyer) To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
    Synonym: negotiate
  10. (transitive) To indicate by beating or drumming.
  11. To tread, as a path.
  12. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
  13. To be in agitation or doubt.
  14. To make a sound when struck.
  15. (military, intransitive) To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
  16. To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and lesser intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations not perfectly in unison.
  17. (transitive) To arrive at a place before someone.
  18. (intransitive, MLE, MTE, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse.
    Synonyms: do it, get it on, have sex, shag; see also Thesaurus:copulate
  19. (transitive, slang) To rob; to cheat or scam.
Conjugation
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bet (simple past of beten "to beat"), from Old English bēot (simple past of bēatan "to beat"). Middle English bet would regularly yield *beet; the modern form is influenced by the present stem and the past participle beaten. Pronunciations with /ɛ/ (from Middle English bette, alternative simple past of beten) are possibly analogous to read (/ɹɛd/), led, met, etc.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bēt, bĕt, IPA(key): /biːt/, (often proscribed) /bɛt/
  • Rhymes: -iːt, -ɛt
  • Homophones: beet, bet

Verb

beat

  1. simple past tense of beat
  2. (especially colloquial) past participle of beat

Adjective

beat (comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

  2. (US slang) Exhausted.
  3. (slang) Dilapidated, beat up.
  4. (African-American Vernacular and gay slang) Having impressively attractive makeup.
  5. (slang) Boring.
  6. (slang, of a person) Ugly.
Synonyms
  • (exhausted): See also Thesaurus:fatigued
  • (dilapidated): See also Thesaurus:ramshackle
  • (boring): See also Thesaurus:boring
  • (ugly): See also Thesaurus:ugly
Translations

Etymology 3

From beatnik, or beat generation.

Alternative forms

  • Beat

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bēt, IPA(key): /biːt/
  • Homophone: beet
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

beat (plural beats)

  2. A beatnik.

Adjective

beat (comparative more beat, superlative most beat)

  1. Relating to the Beat Generation.

References

  • DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. →ISBN.

Anagrams

  • Bate, Beta, Teba, abet, bate, beta

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin beātus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [beˈat]
  • Rhymes: -at

Adjective

beat (feminine beata, masculine plural beats, feminine plural beates)

  1. saint, beatified

Derived terms

  • beateria

Noun

beat m (plural beats, feminine beata)

  1. monk

Related terms

  • beatífic

Further reading

  • “beat” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
  • “beat”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
  • “beat” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
  • “beat” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English beat.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bit/
  • Hyphenation: beat
  • Rhymes: -it
  • Homophones: bied, biedt, biet

Noun

beat m (plural beats, diminutive beatje n)

  1. a beat, a rhythmic pattern, notably in music
  2. (music) beat an early rock genre

Derived terms

  • beatmis
  • beatmuziek

Anagrams

  • bate

Finnish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English beat.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈbiːt/, [ˈbiːt̪]
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

beat

  1. (jazz, hiphop, EDM) beat

Declension

Synonyms

  • biitti

Derived terms

Further reading

  • “beat”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎[8] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English beat.

Adjective

beat (invariable)

  1. beat (50s US literary and 70s UK music scenes)

Noun

beat m (invariable)

  1. beat (rhythm accompanying music)

Anagrams

  • beta, tabe

Latin

Verb

beat

  1. third-person singular present active indicative of beō

Megleno-Romanian

Etymology

From a contracted Vulgar Latin form of Late Latin bibitus (“drunk”), from Latin bibō (“drink”).

Adjective

beat

  1. drunk

Romanian

Etymology 1

From a contracted Vulgar Latin form (possibly *beb(e)tus) of Late Latin bibitus (“drunk”), from Latin bibō (“drink”). Compare Spanish beodo.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [be̯at]

Adjective

beat m or n (feminine singular beată, masculine plural beți, feminine and neuter plural bete)

  1. drunk, drunken, intoxicated; tipsy
    Synonyms: îmbătat; băut; (very formal) în stare de ebrietate; (slang) matol; (slang) matolit; (slang) pilit; (slang) mangă; (slang) țeapăn; (slang) cherchelit
    Antonym: treaz
Declension
Derived terms
  • beție
Related terms
  • bea
  • bețiv
  • îmbăta

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English beat.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [bit]

Noun

beat n (plural beaturi)

  1. (music) beat
Declension
Synonyms
  • instrumental
  • ritm

Rukai

Alternative forms

  • beate

Noun

beat

  1. meat

Volapük

Noun

beat (nominative plural beats)

  1. happiness

Declension

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beats

beatles

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This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.