Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Beat \Beat\, n.
   1. One that beats, or surpasses, another or others; as, the
      beat of him. [Colloq.]

   2. The act of one that beats a person or thing; as:
      (a) (Newspaper Cant) The act of obtaining and publishing a
          piece of news by a newspaper before its competitors;
          also, the news itself; a scoop.

                It's a beat on the whole country. --Scribner's
                                                  Mag.
      (b) (Hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a
          tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those
          so engaged, collectively. ``Driven out in the course
          of a beat.'' --Encyc. of Sport.

                Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the
                last moment, when the beat is close to them.
                                                  --Encyc. of
                                                  Sport.
      (c) (Fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.

Beat \Beat\, v. t. [imp. {Beat}; p. p. {Beat}, {Beaten}; p. pr.
   & vb. n. {Beating}.] [OE. beaten, beten, AS. be['a]tan; akin
   to Icel. bauta, OHG. b?zan. Cf. 1st {Butt}, {Button}.]
   1. 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.

            Thou shalt beat some of it [spices] very small.
                                                  --Ex. xxx. 36.

            They did beat the gold into thin plates. --Ex.
                                                  xxxix. 3.

   2. To punish by blows; to thrash.

   3. To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the
      noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of
      rousing game.

            To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey.
                                                  --Prior.

   4. To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.

            A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.
                                                  --Milton.

   5. To tread, as a path.

            Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way.
                                                  --Blackmore.

   6. To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game,
      etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.

            He beat them in a bloody battle.      --Prescott.

            For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that. --M.
                                                  Arnold.

   7. To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with
      out. [Colloq.]

   8. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.

            Why should any one . . . beat his head about the
            Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?
                                                  --Locke.

   9. (Mil.) 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.

   {To beat down}, to haggle with (any one) to secure a lower
      price; to force down. [Colloq.]

   {To beat into}, to teach or instill, by repetition.

   {To beat off}, to repel or drive back.

   {To beat out}, to extend by hammering.

   {To beat out of} a thing, to cause to relinquish it, or give
      it up. ``Nor can anything beat their posterity out of it
      to this day.'' --South.

   {To beat the dust}. (Man.)
      (a) To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a
          horse.
      (b) To perform curvets too precipitately or too low.

   {To beat the hoof}, to walk; to go on foot.

   {To beat the wing}, to flutter; to move with fluttering
      agitation.

   {To beat time}, to measure or regulate time in music by the
      motion of the hand or foot.

   {To beat up}, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to
      beat up an enemy's quarters.

   Syn: To strike; pound; bang; buffet; maul; drub; thump;
        baste; thwack; thrash; pommel; cudgel; belabor; conquer;
        defeat; vanquish; overcome.

Beat \Beat\, v. t. [imp. {Beat}; p. p. {Beat}, {Beaten}; p. pr.
   & vb. n. {Beating}.] [OE. beaten, beten, AS. be['a]tan; akin
   to Icel. bauta, OHG. b?zan. Cf. 1st {Butt}, {Button}.]
   1. 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.

            Thou shalt beat some of it [spices] very small.
                                                  --Ex. xxx. 36.

            They did beat the gold into thin plates. --Ex.
                                                  xxxix. 3.

   2. To punish by blows; to thrash.

   3. To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the
      noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of
      rousing game.

            To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey.
                                                  --Prior.

   4. To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.

            A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.
                                                  --Milton.

   5. To tread, as a path.

            Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way.
                                                  --Blackmore.

   6. To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game,
      etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.

            He beat them in a bloody battle.      --Prescott.

            For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that. --M.
                                                  Arnold.

   7. To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with
      out. [Colloq.]

   8. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.

            Why should any one . . . beat his head about the
            Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?
                                                  --Locke.

   9. (Mil.) 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.

   {To beat down}, to haggle with (any one) to secure a lower
      price; to force down. [Colloq.]

   {To beat into}, to teach or instill, by repetition.

   {To beat off}, to repel or drive back.

   {To beat out}, to extend by hammering.

   {To beat out of} a thing, to cause to relinquish it, or give
      it up. ``Nor can anything beat their posterity out of it
      to this day.'' --South.

   {To beat the dust}. (Man.)
      (a) To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a
          horse.
      (b) To perform curvets too precipitately or too low.

   {To beat the hoof}, to walk; to go on foot.

   {To beat the wing}, to flutter; to move with fluttering
      agitation.

   {To beat time}, to measure or regulate time in music by the
      motion of the hand or foot.

   {To beat up}, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to
      beat up an enemy's quarters.

   Syn: To strike; pound; bang; buffet; maul; drub; thump;
        baste; thwack; thrash; pommel; cudgel; belabor; conquer;
        defeat; vanquish; overcome.

Beat \Beat\, v. t. [imp. {Beat}; p. p. {Beat}, {Beaten}; p. pr.
   & vb. n. {Beating}.] [OE. beaten, beten, AS. be['a]tan; akin
   to Icel. bauta, OHG. b?zan. Cf. 1st {Butt}, {Button}.]
   1. 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.

            Thou shalt beat some of it [spices] very small.
                                                  --Ex. xxx. 36.

            They did beat the gold into thin plates. --Ex.
                                                  xxxix. 3.

   2. To punish by blows; to thrash.

   3. To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the
      noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of
      rousing game.

            To beat the woods, and rouse the bounding prey.
                                                  --Prior.

   4. To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.

            A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.
                                                  --Milton.

   5. To tread, as a path.

            Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way.
                                                  --Blackmore.

   6. To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game,
      etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.

            He beat them in a bloody battle.      --Prescott.

            For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that. --M.
                                                  Arnold.

   7. To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with
      out. [Colloq.]

   8. To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.

            Why should any one . . . beat his head about the
            Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?
                                                  --Locke.

   9. (Mil.) 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.

   {To beat down}, to haggle with (any one) to secure a lower
      price; to force down. [Colloq.]

   {To beat into}, to teach or instill, by repetition.

   {To beat off}, to repel or drive back.

   {To beat out}, to extend by hammering.

   {To beat out of} a thing, to cause to relinquish it, or give
      it up. ``Nor can anything beat their posterity out of it
      to this day.'' --South.

   {To beat the dust}. (Man.)
      (a) To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a
          horse.
      (b) To perform curvets too precipitately or too low.

   {To beat the hoof}, to walk; to go on foot.

   {To beat the wing}, to flutter; to move with fluttering
      agitation.

   {To beat time}, to measure or regulate time in music by the
      motion of the hand or foot.

   {To beat up}, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to
      beat up an enemy's quarters.

   Syn: To strike; pound; bang; buffet; maul; drub; thump;
        baste; thwack; thrash; pommel; cudgel; belabor; conquer;
        defeat; vanquish; overcome.

Beat \Beat\, n.
   1. A stroke; a blow.

            He, with a careless beat, Struck out the mute
            creation at a heat.                   --Dryden.

   2. A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of
      the heart; the beat of the pulse.

   3. (Mus.)
      (a) 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.
      (b) A transient grace note, struck immediately before the
          one it is intended to ornament.

   4. (Acoustics & Mus.) A sudden swelling or re["e]nforcement
      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.

   5. A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a
      watchman's beat.

   6. A place of habitual or frequent resort.

   7. A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; -- often
      emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat. [Low]

   {Beat of drum} (Mil.), a succession of strokes varied, in
      different ways, for particular purposes, as to regulate a
      march, to call soldiers to their arms or quarters, to
      direct an attack, or retreat, etc.

   {Beat of a watch}, or {clock}, the stroke or sound made by
      the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of
      beat, according as the strokes is at equal or unequal
      intervals.

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.

Beat \Beat\, a.
   Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted. [Colloq.]

         Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed.
                                                  --Dickens.

Source : WordNet®

beat
     adj : very tired; "was all in at the end of the day"; "so beat I
           could flop down and go to sleep anywhere"; "bushed
           after all that exercise"; "I'm dead after that long
           trip" [syn: {all in(p)}, {beat(p)}, {bushed(p)}, {dead(p)}]
     [also: {beaten}]

beat
     n 1: a regular route for a sentry or policeman; "in the old days
          a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by
          name" [syn: {round}]
     2: the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with
        each beat of the heart; "he could feel the beat of her
        heart" [syn: {pulse}, {pulsation}, {heartbeat}]
     3: the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music; "the piece has
        a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat" [syn: {rhythm},
         {musical rhythm}]
     4: a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two
        waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to
        the difference between the two oscillations
     5: a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress
        and behavior [syn: {beatnik}]
     6: the sound of stroke or blow; "he heard the beat of a drum"
     7: (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse [syn: {meter},
         {metre}, {measure}, {cadence}]
     8: a regular rate of repetition; "the cox raised the beat"
     9: a stroke or blow; "the signal was two beats on the steam
        pipe"
     10: the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible
         to the direction from which the wind is blowing
     [also: {beaten}]

beat
     v 1: come out better in a competition, race, or conflict; "Agassi
          beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the
          competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last
          football game" [syn: {beat out}, {crush}, {shell}, {trounce},
           {vanquish}]
     2: give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a
        punishment or as an act of aggression; "Thugs beat him up
        when he walked down the street late at night"; "The
        teacher used to beat the students" [syn: {beat up}, {work
        over}]
     3: hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his
        shoe"
     4: move rhythmically; "Her heart was beating fast" [syn: {pound},
         {thump}]
     5: shape by beating; "beat swords into ploughshares"
     6: make a rhythmic sound; "Rain drummed against the
        windshield"; "The drums beat all night" [syn: {drum}, {thrum}]
     7: glare or strike with great intensity; "The sun was beating
        down on us"
     8: move with a thrashing motion; "The bird flapped its wings";
        "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky"
        [syn: {flap}]
     9: sail with much tacking or with difficulty; "The boat beat in
        the strong wind"
     10: stir vigorously; "beat the egg whites"; "beat the cream"
         [syn: {scramble}]
     11: strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great
         emotion or in accompaniment to music; "beat one's
         breast"; "beat one's foot rhythmically"
     12: be superior; "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure
         beats work!"
     13: avoid paying; "beat the subway fare" [syn: {bunk}]
     14: make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were
         ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight" [syn: {tick},
          {ticktock}, {ticktack}]
     15: move with a flapping motion; "The bird's wings were
         flapping" [syn: {flap}]
     16: indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks;
         "Beat the rhythm"
     17: move with or as if with a regular alternating motion; "the
         city pulsated with music and excitement" [syn: {pulsate},
          {quiver}]
     18: make by pounding or trampling; "beat a path through the
         forest"
     19: produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly; "beat the drum"
     20: strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for
         hunting
     21: beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She
         outfoxed her competitors" [syn: {outwit}, {overreach}, {outsmart},
          {outfox}, {circumvent}]
     22: be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I
         don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This
         question really stuck me" [syn: {perplex}, {vex}, {stick},
          {get}, {puzzle}, {mystify}, {baffle}, {pose}, {bewilder},
          {flummox}, {stupefy}, {nonplus}, {gravel}, {amaze}, {dumbfound}]
     23: wear out completely; "This kind of work exhausts me"; "I'm
         beat"; "He was all washed up after the exam" [syn: {exhaust},
          {wash up}, {tucker}, {tucker out}]
     [also: {beaten}]