English

Pronunciation

• IPA : /biːt/
• SAMPA : /bi:t/

Homophones

• beet

Noun

beat

1. 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. (DeLone et. al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3)
2. a rhythm

Related terms

• drumbeat
• heartbeat

Transitive Verb

to beat (beat, beaten / beat)

1. To hit; to knock; to pound; to strike.
   • As soon as she heard the news, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.
   1. To strike or pound repeatedly , usually in some sort of rhythm.
      • He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
2. To defeat.
   • Jessica had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.
3. To succeed in doing faster than, as if in a competition.
   • No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him. When he exited the classroom after turning it in, Roger would be there waiting for him.
4. To succeed in arriving sooner than.
   • She beat him to the bowling alley and was already selecting her ball when he walked in the door.

Related terms

• beat down
• beat senseless
• beat some sense into
• beat to the punch
• beat to quarters
• beat up

Translations

• Dutch: slaan, kloppen
• French: battre
• Indonesian: pukul , hantam , hajar, ketuk , ketok
• Japanese: 殴る (なぐる , naguru), 叩く (たたく , tataku)
• Latin: pello (1,2)
• Swedish: slå

Intransitive verb

to beat

1. (nautical) To sail to windward using a [series]] of alternate tacks across the wind

Verb

beat past tense of to beat

1. hit, knocked

Translations

• Dutch: sloeg , klopte
• Swedish: slog

Verb

beat past participle of to beat

1. hit, knocked

Synonyms

• beaten

Translations

• Dutch: geslagen , geklopt
• French: battu
• Swedish: slagit

Related terms

• beater
• deadbeat
• the beat generation

References

• DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.

Volapük

Noun

beat

1. happiness