- (v.i.) A round or course which is frequently gone over; as, a watchman's beat.
- (v.t.) To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.
- (v.t.) To tread, as a path.
- (n.) A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament.
- (a.) Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted.
- (v.i.) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
- (v.t.) To scour or range over in hunting, accompanied with the noise made by striking bushes, etc., for the purpose of rousing game.
- (v.i.) To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse.
- (v.i.) 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.
- (v.t.) To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
- (v.i.) To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force; to strike anything, as, rain, wind, and waves do.
- (v.i.) To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
- (p.p.) of Beat.
- (v.i.) A cheat or swindler of the lowest grade; -- often emphasized by dead; as, a dead beat.
- (n.) A stroke; a blow.
- (v.i.) To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
- (v.t.) 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.
- (n.) A sudden swelling or reenforcement 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.
- (v.i.) To be in agitation or doubt.
- (v.t.) To punish by blows; to thrash.
- (v.i.) To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
- (v.t.) To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with out.
- (n.) 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.
- (imp.) of Beat.
- (v.i.) To move with pulsation or throbbing.
- (v.t.) 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.
- (n.) A recurring stroke; a throb; a pulsation; as, a beat of the heart; the beat of the pulse.
- (v.t.) To dash against or strike, as with water or wind.
- (n.) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
- (n.) The act of scouring or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
- (n.) The act of obtaining and publishing a piece of news by a newspaper before its competitors; also, the news itself; a scoop.
- (n.) One that beats or surpasses, another or others; as, the beat of him.
- (n.) The act of one that beats a person or thing.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
| APA | Webster's. (2011). beat. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/beat/definitions/1978896 |
| Chicago | Webster's. 2011. "beat" http://smartdefine.org/beat/definitions/1978896 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | Webster's 2011, beat, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/beat/definitions/1978896>. |
| MLA | Webster's. "beat" 27 May 2011. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/beat/definitions/1978896> |