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.
2. A wavy appearance or outline; waviness. --Evelyn.
3. (Mus.)
(a) The tremulous tone produced by a peculiar pressure of
the finger on a string, as of a violin.
(b) The pulsation caused by the vibrating together of two
tones not quite in unison; -- called also {beat}.
4. (Physics) A motion to and fro, up and down, or from side
to side, in any fluid or elastic medium, propagated
continuously among its particles, but with no translation
of the particles themselves in the direction of the
propagation of the wave; a wave motion; a vibration.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed.
--Dickens.