To strike repeatedly; lay repeated blows upon.To strike in order to produce a sound; sound by percussion: as, to beat a drum or a tambourine.To play (a particular call or tattoo) upon the drum: as, to beat a charge; to beat a retreat.To break, bruise, comminute, or pulverize by beating or pounding, as any hard substance.To extend by beating, as gold or other malleable substance, or to hammer into any form; forge.To separate by concussion; strike apart; remove by striking or threshing: with out.To mix by a striking or beating motion; whip into the desired condition: as, to beat or beat up eggs or batter.To dash or strike against, as water or wind.To strike with the feet in moving; tread upon.To range (fields or woods) with loud blows or other noise in search of game.To overcome in battle, contest, or strife; vanquish or conquer: as, one beats another at play.To surpass; excel; go beyond: as, he beats them all at swimming.To be too difficult for, whether intellectually or physically; baffle: as, it beats me to make it out.To harass; exercise severely; cudgel (one's brains).To exhaust: as, the long and toilsome journey quite beat him.To flutter; flap: as, to beat the wings: said of a bird. See bate.In medieval embroidery, to ornament with thin plates of gold or silver.In printing: To ink with beaters. To impress by repeatedly striking with a mallet a proof-planer pressed against the paper: as, beat a proof of that form.To obtain an unfair advantage of; defraud: as, to beat a hotel.To depress or crush: as, to beat down opposition.To perform or execute, as a piece of music, by or as if by beats with the hands or feet.To drive out or away.To summon or bring together as by beat of drum: as, to beat up recruits. In hunting, to rouse and drive (game) by ranging.In engraving, to remove (a dent or mark) from the face of a plate by striking the back with a punch while the face rests on a sheet of tin-foil on an anvil or a stake. In this way engravers can remove marks too deep to be obliterated by the scraper or burnisher. Synonyms To pound, bang, buffet, maul, drub, thump, thwack, baste, thrash, pommel. Discomfit, Rout, etc. See defeat.To strike repeatedly; knock, as at a door.To move with pulsation; throb: as, the pulse beats.To act, dash, or fall with force or violence, as a storm, flood, passion, etc.: as, the tempest beats against the house.To be tossed so as to strike the ground violently or frequently.To give notice by beating a drum; also, to sound on being beaten, as a drum.To contain beats or pulsations of sound, as a tone formed by sounding together two notes which are nearly in unison. See beat, n., 7.To ponder; be incessantly engaged; be anxiously directed to something; be in agitation or doubt.Nautical, to make progress against the wind by alternate tacks in a zigzag line. A good square-rigged vessel will make a direct gain to windward of three tenths of the distance she has sailed while beating, while the gain to windward of an average fore-and-aft rigged vessel will be equal to five or six tenths of the distance sailed.n. A stroke; a striking; a blow, whether with the hand or with a weapon.n. A recurrent stroke; a pulsation; a throb: as, the beat of the pulse; the heart makes from sixty to seventy beats a minute.n. The sound made by the foot in walking or running; a footfall.n. A round or course which is frequently gone over: as, a watchman's beat; a milkman's beat.n. Hence A course habitually traversed, or a place to which one habitually or frequently resorts.n. In Alabama and Mississippi, the principal subdivision of a county; a voting-precinct.n. In music: The beating or pulsation arising from the interference of two musical notes differing but slightly in pitch. See interference.n. The motion of the hand, foot, or baton in marking the divisions of time during the performance of a piece of music. Used vaguely by various English writers to denote different kinds of ornamental notes or graces.n. The third operation in paper-making, in which the pulp is still further divided and torn apart in the beating-engine.n. The blow struck by a valve when falling into its seat.n. The bearing part or the facing of a valve.n. A worthless, dishonest, shiftless fellow; a knave.n. A stroke or blow without recoil, as in the dead-beat escapement. See escapement.Exhausted by exertion, mentally or bodily; fatigued; worn out by toil.n. A bundle of flax or hemp made up ready for steeping.n. The rough sod of moorland, or the matted growth of fallow land, which is sliced or pared off, and burned, when the land is about to be plowed. See beat, verbTo slice off (the beat or rough sod) from uncultivated or fallow ground with a beat-ax or breast-plow, in order to burn it, for the purpose at once of destroying it and of converting it into manure for the land.In cricket, to break through (a batsman's defense): said of the bowler or the ball.n. In fencing, a smart tap on the adversary's blade to disconcert him or drive the blade aside for the thrust.n. The act of overcoming or surpassing; specifically (in newspaper cant), the securing and publishing of some news item by a newspaper in advance of its competitors.n. The news item itself.n. The act of beating or ranging over a cover for game; the company, collectively, of those engaged in beating for game.