What is the meaning of beat?

noun

• A regular route for a sentry or policeman.
  • usage: "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name"
  • synonyms: round
• The rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart.
  • usage: "he could feel the beat of her heart"
  • synonyms: pulse, pulsation, heartbeat
• The basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music.
  • usage: "the piece has a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat"
  • synonyms: rhythm, musical rhythm
• 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.
• A member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior.
  • synonyms: beatnik
• The sound of stroke or blow.
  • usage: "he heard the beat of a drum"
• Prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse.
  • synonyms: meter, metre, measure, cadence
• A regular rate of repetition.
  • usage: "the cox raised the beat"
• A stroke or blow.
  • usage: "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe"
• The act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing.

verb

• Come out better in a competition, race, or conflict.
  • usage: "Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game"
  • synonyms: beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish
• Give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression.
  • usage: "Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night"; "The teacher used to beat the students"
  • synonyms: beat up, work over
• Hit repeatedly.
  • usage: "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe"
• Move rhythmically.
  • usage: "Her heart was beating fast"
  • synonyms: pound, thump
• Shape by beating.
  • usage: "beat swords into ploughshares"
• Make a rhythmic sound.
  • usage: "Rain drummed against the windshield"; "The drums beat all night"
  • synonyms: drum, thrum
• Glare or strike with great intensity.
  • usage: "The sun was beating down on us"
• Move with a thrashing motion.
  • usage: "The bird flapped its wings"; "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky"
  • synonyms: flap
• Sail with much tacking or with difficulty.
  • usage: "The boat beat in the strong wind"
• Stir vigorously.
  • usage: "beat the egg whites"; "beat the cream"
  • synonyms: scramble
• Strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music.
  • usage: "beat one's breast"; "beat one's foot rhythmically"
• Be superior.
  • usage: "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work"
• Avoid paying.
  • usage: "beat the subway fare"
  • synonyms: bunk
• Make a sound like a clock or a timer.
  • usage: "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight"
  • synonyms: tick, ticktock, ticktack
• Move with a flapping motion.
  • usage: "The bird's wings were flapping"
  • synonyms: flap
• Indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks.
  • usage: "Beat the rhythm"
• Move with or as if with a regular alternating motion.
  • usage: "the city pulsated with music and excitement"
  • synonyms: pulsate, quiver
• Make by pounding or trampling.
  • usage: "beat a path through the forest"
• Produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly.
  • usage: "beat the drum"
• Strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting.
• Beat through cleverness and wit.
  • usage: "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors"
  • synonyms: outwit, overreach, outsmart, outfox, circumvent
• Be a mystery or bewildering to.
  • usage: "This beats me"; "Got me-I don't know the answer"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me"
  • synonyms: perplex, vex, stick, get, puzzle, mystify, baffle, pose, bewilder, flummox, stupefy, nonplus, gravel, amaze, dumbfound
• Wear out completely.
  • usage: "This kind of work exhausts me"; "I'm beat"; "He was all washed up after the exam"
  • synonyms: exhaust, wash up, tucker, tucker out

adjective

• Very tired.
  • usage: "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"
  • synonyms: all in, bushed, dead