Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Beat \Beat\, v. i.
   1. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock
      vigorously or loudly.

            The men of the city . . . beat at the door.
                                                  --Judges. xix.
                                                  22.

   2. To move with pulsation or throbbing.

            A thousand hearts beat happily.       --Byron.

   3. To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force;
      to strike anything, as, rain, wind, and waves do.

            Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below. --Dryden.

            They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
                                                  --Longfellow.

            The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he
            fainted, and wisbed in himself to die. --Jonah iv.
                                                  8.

            Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
                                                  --Bacon.

   4. To be in agitation or doubt. [Poetic]

            To still my beating mind.             --Shak.

   5. (Naut.) To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a
      zigzag line or traverse.

   6. To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.

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

   8. (Acoustics & Mus.) 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.

   {A beating wind} (Naut.), a wind which necessitates tacking
      in order to make progress.

   {To beat about}, to try to find; to search by various means
      or ways. --Addison.

   {To beat about the bush}, to approach a subject circuitously.
      

   {To beat up and down} (Hunting), to run first one way and
      then another; -- said of a stag.

   {To beat up for recruits}, to go diligently about in order to
      get helpers or participators in an enterprise.