Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Beat |
BeatAdjective1. (informal) very tired; "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". Noun1. A regular route for a sentry or policeman; "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name". 2. The rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart; "he could feel the beat of her heart". 3. The basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music; "the piece has a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat". 4. 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. 5. A member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior. 6. The sound of stroke or blow; "he heard the beat of a drum". 7. (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse. 8. A regular rate of repetition; "the cox raised the beat". 9. A stroke or blow; "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe". 10. : the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing. Verb1. Come out better in a competition, race, or conflict; "Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game". 2. Give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression; "Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night"; "The teacher used to beat the students". 3. Hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe". 4. Move rhythmically; "Her heart was beating fast". 5. Shape by beating; "beat swords into ploughshares". 6. Make a rhythmic sound: "Rain drummed against the windshield"; "The drums beat all night". 7. Glare or strike with great intensity; "The sun was beating down on us". 8. Move with a thrashing motion; "The bird flapped its wings"; "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky". 9. Sail with much tacking or with difficulty; "The boat beat in the strong wind". 10. : stir vigorously; "beat the egg whites"; beat the cream". 11. : strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music; "beat one's breast"; "beat one's foot rhythmically". 12. : be superior: "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work!". 13. : deprive somebody of something by deceit; "The con-man beat me out of $50"; "This salesman ripped us off!"; "we were cheated by their clever-sounding scheme"; "They chiseled me out of my money". 14. : make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight". 15. : move with a flapping motion; "The bird's wings were flapping". 16. : indicate by beating; as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm". 17. : make by pounding or trampling; "beat a path through the forest". 18. : produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly: "beat the drum". 19. : strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting. 20. : beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors". 21. : be a mystery or bewildering to: "This beats me!" "Got me--I don't know the answer!". 22. : wear out completely; "This kind of work exhausts me"; "I'm beat"; "He was all washed up after the exam". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "beat" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
Note: Beat \Beat\, transitive verb. [imperfect Beat; past participle Beat, Beaten; Beating.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Aerospace | 1. One complete cycle of the variations in the amplitude of two or more periodic phenomena of different frequency which mutually react. See beat frequency. 2. To produce beating. (references) |
Dream Interpretation | It bodes no good to dream of being beaten by an angry person; family jars and discord are signified. To beat a child, ungenerous advantage is taken by you of another; perhaps the tendency will be to cruelly treat a child. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Electrical Engineering | The periodic variation in the amplitude of an oscillation resulting from the superposition of two periodic oscillations of slightly different frequencies. Source: European Union. (references) |
Food & Agriculture | A)a minor executive forest charge, essentially protective, commonly a subdivision of a range under the charge of a forest guard or comparable junior rank; b)a major protective subdivision of a forest. Source: European Union. (references) |
Industry | Revolving at high speed, . . the beater. . beats against the fringe of cotton as the latter is fed into machine. Source: European Union. (references) |
Literature | Beat A track, line, or appointed range. A walk often trodden or beaten by the feet, as a policeman's boat. The word means a beaten path. Not in my beat. Not in my line; not in the range of my talents or inclination. Off his beat. Not on duty; not in his appointed walk; not his speciality or line. "Off his own beat his opinions were of no value."- Emerson: English Traite, chap. i. On his beat. In his appointed walk; on duty. Out of his beat. In his wrong walk; out of his proper sphere. To beat up one's quarters. To hunt out where one lives; to visit without ceremony. A military term, signifying to make an unexpected attack on an enemy in camp. "To beat up the quarters of some of our less-known relations."- Lamb: Essays of Elta. Beat (To ). To strike. (Anglo-Saxon, beatan.) To beat an alarm. To give notice of danger by beat of drum. To beat or drum a thing into one. To repeat as a drummer repeats his strokes on a drum. To beat a retreat (French, battre en retraite); to beat to arms; to beat a charge. Military terms similar to the above. To beat the air. To strike out at nothing, merely to bring one's muscles into play, as pugilists do before they begin to fight; to toil without profit, to work to no purpose. "So fight I, not as one that beateth the air."- I Cor. ix. 26. To beat the bush. One beat the bush and another caught the hare. "Il a battu les buissons, et autre a pris les oiseaux." "Il bat le buisson sans prendre les oisillons" is a slightly different idea, meaning he has toiled in vain. "Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours" (John iv. 48). The allusion is to beaters, whose business it is to beat the bushes and start the game for a shooting party. To beat the Devil's Tattoo. (See Tattoo.) To beat the Dutch. To draw a very long bow; to say something very incredible. "Well! if that don't beat the Dutch!" To beat time. To mark time in music by beating or moving the hands, feet, or a wand. To beat up supporters. To hunt them up or call them together, as soldiers are by beat of drum. Beat (To ). To overcome or get the better of. This does not mean to strike, which is the Anglo-Saxon beátan, but to better, to be better, from the Anglo-Saxon verb bétan. Dead beat. So completely beaten or worsted as to have no leg to stand on. Like a dead man with no fight left in him; quite tired out. "I'm dead beat, but I thought I'd like to come in and see you all once more."- Roe: Without a Home, p. 32. Dead beat escapement (of a watch). One in which there is no reverse motion of the escape-wheel. That beats Banagher. Wonderfully inconsistent and absurd - exceedingly ridiculous. Banagher is a town in Ireland, on the Shannon, in King's County. It formerly sent two members to Parliament, and was, of course, a famous pocket borough. When a member spoke of a family borough where every voter was a man employed by the lord, it was not unusual to reply, "Well, that beats Banagher." " `Well,' says he, `to gratify them I will. So just a morsel. But, Jack, this beats Bannagher' (sic )."- W. B. Yeats: Fairy Tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 196. That beats Termagant. Your ranting, raging promposity, or exaggeration, surpasses that of Termagant (q.v.). To beat hollow is to beat wholly, to be wholly the superior. To beat up against the wind. To tack against an adverse wind; to get the better of the wind. Beat (French, abattre, to abate.) To beat down. To make a seller "abate" his price. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Occupations | See IN-BEAT. (references) |
Physics | The phenomenon that results from the linear or non-linear superposition of two or more waves of the same kind but of different frequencies. Source: European Union. (references) |
Publishing & Graphic Arts | A story published solely by one newspaper. Source: European Union. (references) |
| A reporter's regular territory for news coverage. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Sports & Leisure | To sail windward by alternate tacks. Source: European Union. (references) |
| A phase of the crawl or backstroke, such as the upward thrust of the leg; generally there are six -- (kicks) in one complete crawl or backstroke cycle. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The beat can also mean solely the bass and snare drums of the rhythm. DJs often beatmatch the songs that they play.
- physics: beat is the perception of the sum of two close frequencies as one frequency that oscillates between zero intensity and full intensity, caused by the alternating constructive and destructive interference. Beating is heard as a pulsation in loudness of two close frequencies, and , at the rate of . Thus at the unison and as the difference between and increases, the speed decreases till beyond a certain proximity beating stops and a roughness is heard instead, after which the two pitches are perceived as separate.
- music: beat (music) is any of the periodic transient signals in music that mark the rhythm.
This is a Wikipedia:disambiguation page.
- literature: beat is a genre of literature written by beatniks. See: beat generation.
- police: beat is the territory and time that a police officer patrols.
- musical genre: beat style played in the 1960s
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Beat."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Beat is a unit of musical time; when you tap your foot to music, each tap is a beat. Beat is not a particularly technical term, and has no formal definition. If two people tap their feet to the same music but one taps twice as fast as the other, neither is wrong; they simply take different note-values as their unit of time.Much music is characterised by a sequence of beats organised into a time signature, the speed of which is determined by a tempo. In the context of a time signature, the term "beat" most often means the denominator; so in 3/4, most people would consider the beat to be the 4, that is, a quarter-note or crotchet.
Musicians, however, typically find that mentally counting a regular series of beats enables them to keep synchronised even if the music is not characterised by regular rhythm.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Beat (music)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The term "beat generation" was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published the first novel of the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: "This is the beat generation"). The adjective beat (introduced by Herbert Huncke) had the connotations of "tired" or "down and out", but Kerouac added the paradoxical connotations of "upbeat" and "beatific".Calling this relatively small group of struggling writers, artists, hustlers and drug addicts a "generation" was to make the claim that they were representative and important—the beginnings of a new trend, analogous to the influential Lost Generation. This is the kind of bold move that could be seen as delusions of grandeur, aggressive salesmanship or perhaps a display of perceptive insight. History shows it was clearly not just a delusion, but possibly a real insight into some real trends that became self-reinforcing: the label helped to create what it described.
The members of the beat generation were new bohemian libertines, who engaged in a spontaneous, sometimes messy, creativity. The beat writers produced a body of written work controversial both for its advocacy of non-conformity and for its non-conforming style.
The canonical beat generation authors met in New York: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, (in the 1940s) and later (in 1950) Gregory Corso. In the mid-50s this group expanded to include San Francisco area figures such as Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Philip Whalen and Lew Welch.
Some major works from these writers are Kerouac's On the Road, Ginsberg's Howl, and Burroughs' Naked Lunch.
Perhaps equally important were the less obviously creative members of the scene: Lucien Carr (who introduced Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs); Herbert Huncke a drug addict and petty thief met by Burroughs in 1946; Hal Chase, an anthropologist from Denver who in 1947 introduced into the group Neal Cassady. Cassady was immortalized by Kerouac in the novel On the Road (under the name "Dean Moriarty") as a hyper wildman, frequently broke, largely amoral, but frantically engaged with life.
Cassady introduced into the beat scene the "rap"; the loose spontaneous babble that later became associated with "beatniks". Cassady was not much of a writer himself, though the core writers of the group were impressed with the free-flowing style of some of his letters, and Kerouac cited this as a key influence on his invention of the spontaneous prose style/technique that he used in On the Road (the other obvious influence being the improvised solos of Jazz music).
All of this does not yet mention the oft-neglected women in the original circle, such as Joan Vollmer and Edie Parker. Their apartment in the upper west side of Manhattan often functioned as a salon and/or crash-pad, and Joan Vollmer in particular was a serious participant in the marathon discussion sessions.
In 1950 Gregory Corso met Ginsberg, who was impressed by the poetry Corso had written while incarcerated for burglary. Then during the 1950s there was much cross-pollination with San Francisco area writers (Ginsberg, Corso, Cassady and Kerouac all moved there for a time). Ferlinghetti (one of the partners who ran the City Lights press and bookstore) became a focus of the scene as well as the older poet Rexroth, who's apartment became a Friday night literary salon. Rexroth organized the famous Six Gallery reading in 1955, the first public appearance of Ginsberg's poem Howl.
When On the Road was finally published in 1957 (it had been written in 1951), it received a strong review in the New York Times Book Review and became a best-seller. This produced a wave of fame that all of the beats from then on had to surf on or drown under.
The term "Beatnik" was coined by Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958 as a derogatory term, a reference to the Russian satellite Sputnik, which managed to suggest that the beats were (1) "way out there" and (2) pro-Communist. This term stuck and became the popular label associated with a new stereotype of men with goatees and berets playing bongos while women wearing black leotards dance.
A classic example of the beatnik image is the character Maynard G. Krebs played by Bob Denver on the Dobie Gillis television show that ran from 1959 to 1963.
In the popular television cartoon show, The Simpsons, the parents of Ned Flanders are beatniks.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Beat generation."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
BEAT | English | Bistable Etalon with Absorbed transmission | Physics |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: BeatSynonyms: all in(p) (adj), beat(p) (adj), bushed(p) (adj), dead(p) (adj), beatnik (n), cadence (n), heartbeat (n), measure (n), meter (n), musical rhythm (n), pulsation (n), pulse (n), rhythm (n), round (n), amaze (v), baffle (v), beat out (v), beat up (v), bewilder (v), cheat (v), chisel (v), circumvent (v), crush (v), drum (v), dumbfound (v), exhaust (v), flap (v), flummox (v), get (v), gravel (v), mystify (v), nonplus (v), outfox (v), outsmart (v), outwit (v), overreach (v), perplex (v), pound (v), puzzle (v), rip off (v), scramble (v), stupefy (v), stupify (v), thrum (v), thump (v), tick (v), ticktack (v), ticktock (v), trounce (v), tucker (v), tucker out (v), vanquish (v), wash up (v). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: kicked (sports & leisure). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | If you can't beat us (The Matrix Reloaded; writing credit: Andy Wachowski; Larry Wachowski) Tell me, would you be likely to sue me if I was to beat you right now (The Sweet Hereafter; writing credit: Atom Egoyan) They took turns beating him Until there was nothing left they cared to beat. (Sleepers; writing credit: Barry Levinson) The truth is that, while we Welsh like to believe that it was the mountains that beat the successive invaders, it was really the weather that comes with mountains (The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a ; writing credit: Christopher Monger.) I like the way you beat up those guys who were making fun of you. It was pretty cool (Mr. Deeds; writing credit: Clarence Budington Kell; Robert Riskin) | |
Lyrics | Where does my heart beat how (Where Does My Heart Beat Now; performing artist: Celine Dion) Just a foolish beat of my heart (Foolish Beat; performing artist: Debbie Gibson) And when the drummer starts beating that beat (TURN THE BEAT AROUND; performing artist: Gloria Estefan) To love with every beat (With Every Beat Of My Heart; performing artist: Taylor Dayne) We in that sunshine state with a bomb ass hemp beat (California Love; performing artist: 2 PAC) | |
Clever | Beat me with the truth, don't torture me with lies. (references; author: unknown) The best way to beat your enemy is to beat him at politeness. (references; author: unknown) Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't. (references; author: unknown) Everyday I beat my own previous record for number of consecutive days I've stayed alive. (references; author: unknown) If our gifts are not surrendered to God, we tend to beat people over the head with them. (references; author: unknown) | |
Tongue Twisters | Betty beat a bit of butter to make a better batter. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat (1971) Beat the Clock (1969) L.M. Beat (1969) Beat the Odds (1968) The Beat of the Brass (1968) | |
Song Titles | Park Avenue Beat (Theme From Perry Mason) (performing artist: Ray and his orchestra Conniff) Turn The Beat Around (performing artist: Gloria Estefan) You Beat Me To The Punch (performing artist: Mary Wells) Beat It (performing artist: Michael Jackson) Beat Goes On, The (performing artist: Sonny & Cher) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
High Tech |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Astronomers have found a spiral galaxy that may be spinning to the beat of a different cosmic ... Credit: NASA. |  | This is an artist's concept of the near stellar environment of the star Beat Pictoris. This ... Credit: NASA. |
 | Like most areas in Chesapeake Bay, Wye Island suffers from the scourge of erosion as waves beat against the shoreline. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Mr. Andrew Miller and Mr. Jimmy Clark pick okra for the Beat 4 Co-op of which they are members. Credit: USDA. |
 | Ben Burkett, Executive Director of the Mississippi Ass'n of Cooperatives accepts a shipment of okra from the Beat 4 Co-op in Macon, MS. Credit: USDA. |  | [Jerry "Beat to a stand still", Dr. Please 'Em's prescription,...] / Drawn & Engd. by I.R. & G. Cruickshank. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | How Toronto Beat Diphtheria : We can do likewise. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Gertie]. Old Pew obeyed her -- : beat it now! cried Gertie, fast as you know how. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | An iron curtain's tough to beat your head against!. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Someday -- when they beat their spears into pruning hooks. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Drummer" by Danny Molina Commentary: "Storm beat." | "Old Hospital" by Velda Christensen Commentary: "This is an old beat up hosipital on Highway 89. It will be rennovated soon." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | A very stiff and square style of playing in which the emphasis is on the beat. | | Solid bass beat with a catchy commercial style keyboard melody. |
| Latin drum beat. | | Echoing drum machine beat. |
| A regular heart beat. | | A quick syncopated synthesized hi-hat and bass drum beat. |
| A synthesized break beat. | | Uptempo drum beat; a low African drum. |
| One conga drum beat. | | Military-style snare drum beat. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Alexander Pope | You beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: Knock as you please, there's no body at home. |
Buddha | 'He insulted me, he cheated me, he beat me, he robbed me' -- those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. |
Ilka Chase | When he said we were trying to make a fool of him, I could only murmur that the Creator had beat us to it. |
Lewis Carroll | Speak roughly to your little boy, and beat him when he sneezes: he only does it to annoy, because he knows it teases. |
Lord Alfred Tennyson | No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years. |
Muhammad Ali | Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. |
Samuel Johnson | A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He'll beat you all at piety. |
Sheldon | Each day look back on your work of yesterday -- Then try to beat it. |
Sophocles | In a just cause the weak will beat the strong. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He was a wretch, a kind of mendicant musician, a lazy ragamuffin, who beat her, and who left her, as she had taken him, with disgust |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | He moved a thin shrunken brown hand gently in the air in time to his praise and his thin quick eyelids beat often over his sad eyes |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | The pup looked proudly back at the men, and then flopped down in the dust and beat its tail contentedly on the ground |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | Fire, too, was awakened thus early to put the vital beat in him and get him off. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | An arrhythmia is a change in the regular beat of the heart. (references) | |
The heart's lower chambers beat so chaotically and fast that no blood is pumped. (references) | ||
The heart may seem to skip a beat or beat irregularly or very fast or very slowly. (references) | ||
Business | U.S. automobiles and automotive parts enjoy an excellent reputation in the PA. However, U.S. exporters should not be complacent and believe that most types of auto parts will beat out competitors. (references) | |
Children | India | Schoolteachers often beat children. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Suriname | In May three men forced a Dutch journalist off the road and beat him. (references) |
Macau | In 2000 a police or immigration officer allegedly beat one foreign practitioner. (references) | |
Economic History | Czech Rep | A joint U.S./Czech marketing approach to major projects and tenders will beat a U.S.-only approach hands down. (references) |
Spain | Prospects for growth are moderately optimistic in the manufacture of cars, Spain's top export, following a record-setting year in 1999. In 1999, five of the main brands (Opel, Seat, Volkswagen, PSA - Citroën/Peugeot Group, and Renault) beat their own all-time records for production in or exports from Spain. (references) | |
Human Rights | Brazil | As a result, guards beat 78 inmates. (references) |
Minorities | Indonesia | The following day, Muslim students in Makassar severely beat two other non-Muslims. (references) |
Croatia | In April a gang of skinheads beat a teenage Romani boy at Zagreb's main railway station. (references) | |
Yugoslavia | On March 19, three men from Beocin beat an ethnic-Albanian man and damaged property in his pastry shop. (references) | |
Political Economy | Bangladesh | Police frequently beat demonstrators. (references) |
Chad | The authorities beat members of the opposition. (references) | |
Brazil | Prison officials often tortured and beat inmates. (references) | |
Political Rights | Ghana | In the runoff Kufuor beat Mills with 56.7 percent of the vote. (references) |
Egypt | In several districts, opposition party candidates reported that police and NDP supporters beat and intimidated opposition supporters. (references) | |
Armenia | In a July 1999 by-election in Yerevan's Achapniak district, violence erupted when armed supporters of one of the candidates beat and opened fire on supporters of another candidate. (references) | |
Women | Kuwait | The employers who beat to death their Sri Lankan maid in August 1999 remained in jail awaiting trial at year's end. (references) |
Nepal | Shamans or other local authority figures sometimes publicly beat and physically abuse suspected witches as part of an exorcism ceremony. (references) | |
Mozambique | Many women believe that their spouses have the right to beat them, and cultural pressures discourage women from taking legal action against abusive spouses. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Zimbabwe | The strike generally was peaceful, although there were reports that police beat residents in Harare's high-density suburbs. (references) |
Haiti | The Ministry of Social Affairs believes that many employers compel the children to work long hours, provide them little nourishment, and frequently beat and abuse them. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | REDRESS, n. Reparation without satisfaction. Among the Anglo-Saxon a subject conceiving himself wronged by the king was permitted, on proving his injury, to beat a brazen image of the royal offender with a switch that was afterward applied to his own naked back. The latter rite was performed by the public hangman, and it assured moderation in the plaintiff's choice of a switch. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dominick Dunne | Well, I mean shocked with delight, I have to tell you, because I mean, you know, I always think that the defendant who gets the million dollar lawyer is going to beat the local, overworked, underpaid prosecutor, but it didn't work out that way this time. |
Jon Stewart | The rock guys, the morning zoo. The rock, that sort of thing. The rap, it all rhymes. It's just a difference of the beat. |
Rush Limbaugh | We're endowed by our Creator with a natural yearning for freedom that liberals try to beat out of us. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Beat" is generally used as a lexical verb (past tense) -- approximately 39.86% of the time. "Beat" is used about 5,514 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (past tense) | 39.86% | 2,198 | 3,995 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 35.07% | 1,934 | 4,431 |
| Noun (singular) | 19.31% | 1,065 | 7,047 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 5% | 276 | 17,631 |
| Lexical Verb (past participle) | 0.72% | 40 | 54,274 |
| Unclassified Items | 0.02% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.02% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 5,514 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "beat" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Beat | Last name | 130 | 58,553 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "beat": at beat of drum ♦ be dread beat ♦ be off one's beat ♦ be on one's beat ♦ be on the beat ♦ be outside one's beat ♦ beat a charge ♦ beat a dead horse ♦ beat a hasty retreat ♦ beat a nail into ♦ beat a path ♦ beat a record ♦ beat a retreat ♦ beat a tattoo ♦ beat about ♦ beat about the bush ♦ beat again ♦ beat against ♦ beat against the wind ♦ beat all ♦ beat all hollow ♦ beat an alarm ♦ beat around the bush ♦ beat at the door ♦ beat back ♦ beat black and blue ♦ beat down ♦ beat down smb. in price ♦ beat down the price of ♦ beat frequency oscillator ♦ beat generation ♦ beat group ♦ beat in ♦ beat into ♦ beat into the head ♦ beat it ♦ beat it! ♦ beat knee ♦ beat modulation ♦ Beat mold ♦ Beat of a clock ♦ Beat of a watch ♦ Beat of drum ♦ beat of wings ♦ beat off ♦ beat off! ♦ beat on the door ♦ beat on the windows ♦ beat one's brains ♦ beat one's breast ♦ beat one's chest ♦ beat out ♦ beat out smb.'s brains ♦ beat poetry ♦ beat reception ♦ beat smb. at chess ♦ beat smb. black and blue ♦ beat smb. hollow ♦ beat smb. into a jelly ♦ beat smb. to a jelly ♦ beat smb. to it ♦ beat smb.'s head off ♦ beat smth. flat ♦ beat smth. into smb.'s head ♦ beat the air ♦ beat the band ♦ beat the breast ♦ beat the bushes ♦ beat the carpets ♦ beat the customs ♦ beat the devil's tattoo ♦ beat the drum ♦ beat the dust out of ♦ beat the rap ♦ beat the record ♦ beat the reveille ♦ beat the woods ♦ beat time ♦ beat to a frazzle ♦ beat to a jelly ♦ beat to a pulp ♦ beat to death ♦ beat to drums ♦ beat up ♦ beat up for recruits ♦ beat up on ♦ beat up one's quarters ♦ beat up/to ♦ beat upon ♦ beat with a mallet ♦ beat with a stick ♦ beat with stick ♦ dead ammeter beat ♦ dead beat ♦ gay beat ♦ have a driving beat ♦ i am dead beat ♦ miss a beat ♦ off beat ♦ queer beat ♦ rate of heart beat. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "beat": beat-beat, beat-boho-jazz-punk, beat-card, beat-'em, beat-'em-up, beat-'em-up-cum-shoot-'em-up, beat-'em-ups, beat-frequency, beat-grandfather, beat-grinding, beat-off, beat-poetry, beat-pop, beat-the-deadline, beat-to-beat, beat-up. | |
Ending with "beat": beat-to-beat, off-beat, pulse-beat, up-beat. | |
Containing "beat": benevolent-beat-bohemian, Double-beat valve, four-beat-line. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
100.3 the beat | 1,038 | free rap beat | 158 |
beat | 1,033 | irregular heart beat | 146 |
the beat | 505 | free beat | 145 |
beat maker | 475 | beat drug test | 143 |
rap beat | 392 | beat music | 142 |
94.5 beat | 361 | make beat | 141 |
beat greets | 336 | the beat 92.3 | 128 |
dead beat dad | 298 | heart beat | 126 |
103.5 beat | 281 | 104.3 beat | 118 |
97.9 beat | 278 | beat swizz | 115 |
98.5 beat | 264 | beat greet | 112 |
103.9 beat | 233 | beat machine | 110 |
hip hop beat | 215 | beat make own | 110 |
beat it | 210 | nobody beat the wiz | 107 |
beat street | 200 | beat greeting | 107 |
95.5 beat | 183 | atlanta beat | 105 |
beat box | 172 | break beat | 99 |
beat speeding ticket | 169 | beat boy give | 96 |
drum beat | 165 | racing beat | 87 |
beat generation | 162 | the beat goes on | 87 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "beat"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | rrah (aim, assess, beat up, castigate, cob, flail, flap, flicker, give a good hiding, give in, lambaste, larrup, lather, lay into, lick, mill, Pat, thrash, thresh, trounce, wallop, whop), përziej (admix, adulterate, alloy, attemper, blend, commingle, compound, confound, conglomerate, dash, drag in, embark, emulsify, implicate, intermingle, intermix, jumble, knead, malaxate, mingle, mix, shuffle, stir), mundoj (agonize, crucify, drive, harass, Harrow, obsess, rack, rankle, sweat, tantalize, torment, torture, trouble, weigh down, wrack), lodh (badger, fatigue, harass, irk, jade, overdo, overdrive, overstrain, overstrain oneself, strain, tire, try, Tucker, wear, wear down, wear out, work), goditje (assault, bang, bash, batting, biff, blow, buffet, bump, cant, chop, clean and jerk, clip, dash, dint, drive, fib, flap, hit, ictus, impingement, incitement, infliction, jab, joggle, jolt, knock, knocking, lick, percussion, poke, pound, push, shock, slat, sock, stimulus, strike, stroke, thrust, thwack, tremor, welt), godit (bash, biff, buffet, bump, butt, clip, clout, conk, deal, defeat, hit, impinge, instigate, joggle, jostle, knock, pound, shock, shove, slam, smite, stab, strike, tap, thrash, thwack, whack), godas (affect, astonish smb., bash, biff, buffet, bump, butt, clip, clout, conk, defeat, drop, hit, impinge, knock, pound, smite, stab, strike, whack), fishkullon, farkëtoj (forge, shape, Smith). (various references) | |
Arabic | سحن (bruise, grind, levigate, powder, pulverization, triturate, trituration), رد (answer, answer back, counter, disallow, drive back, pay, pay back, put off, rebound, rebuff, rebut, rebuttal, rejoinder, render, repay, repayment, repercussion, reply, respond, response, retrieve, return, reverberate, reversion, riposte, spurn, turn away), أرهق (break, exhaust, fatigue, gruel, harass, labor, labour, lie, load, overload, overstrain, pump, run down, saddle, soak, squeeze, tax, try, tucker, weary, weigh, weigh down, weight), خفق (baulk, beating, bust, collapse, come, come to grief, dilute, fall, fizzle out, flap, flummox, flunk, go by the board, go wrong, goof, misfire, miss, muddle, pit-a-pat, pound, pulsate, pulsation, throb, whip), خفقة (pulsation), صد (alienation, baffle, balk, baulk, bear down, beat off, blast, estop, estoppel, exclusion, fend, fend off, fight off, hit, hit back, hold off, jolt, kick, negative, parry, poach, push, push aside, push back, quash, rebuff, repel, repudiate, repulse, repulsion, return, riposte, snub, spurn, stamp down, stave, stay, stay away, stem, throwback, toss, turn away, ward, ward off), ضرب (batter, battery, beat off, belabour, biff, buffet, chastise, connect, curry, description, drub, drubbing, fib, flap, flapping, form, galvanize, genre, go getter, grain, hit, hitting, impact, jabbing, kidney, kind, lace, lace into smb., lam, larrup, let out, lock out, manner, multiplication, multiply, order, overtake, paddle, paste, pasting, patter, poke, pommel, pound, pummel, slash, slosh, sock, sort, stamp, strike, stripe, tan, tanning, thrash, thrashing, thresh, variety, wallop, whip), طرق المعادن, طرقة, بز (distance, eclipse, exceed, excel, outclass, outmatch, outrival, outshine, outstrip, overpass, surpass), سحق (bash, batter, beating, bow, break, crack, crumple, crunch, crush, flatten, grind, jam, levigate, mow, overwhelm, pound, pounding, powder, pulverization, pulverize, put down, quash, reduce, run over smth., scotch, slam, smash, squash, squeeze, squelch, steam roller, suppress, sweep, trample, tread, triturate, trituration), فاز (achieve, attain, be successful, defeat, gain, get, obtain, overcome, prevail, succeed, triumph over, win, win out), تغلب (conquer, cope, crumple, get over, get past, get the better of, knock down, master, negotiate, outdo, overbear, overcome, predomination, pull through, quench, ride, vanquish, whack, worst), تفوق (beat all, break, class, distinction, eclipse, exceed, excel, excellence, get the better of, go one better, lick, mastery, outclass, outguess, overpass, overrule, pre eminence, precede, predomination, preponderance, preponderate, prevalence, seniority, superiority, supremacy, surpass, top, tower, transcend, transcendence), حيز (get, room, space), قرع (bang, banging, beating, chide, drum, hitting, knock, knocking, rap, rapping, ring, sound, striking, tap, toll), قرع طبلا (drum), قهر (compulsion, conquer, crush, defeat, defeating, force, get the better of, overbear, overcome, overmaster, overpower, overwhelm, subdual, subdue, subjugate, subjugation, tame, vanquish), نبض (pant, pulsate, pulsatile, pulsation, pulse, stroke, throb), هزم (bear down, best, checkmate, clobber, defeat, dish, dump, finish, floor, foil, go down, hold down, knock off, knock out, lick, outdo, outvote, overcome, overpower, pip, sink, skunk, smash, stop, thrash, vanquish, vote down, whip, wipe out, wipe the floor with smb.), سبق صحفي (scoop). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | надминавам (bang, better, exceed, outbalance, outdo, outgo, outreach, outrun, outstrip, out-top, outweigh, overmatch, overpass, overreach, pass, surpass, top, transcend), прежурям, превъзхождам (cap, domineer, exceed, extinguish, outbalance, outclass, outdo, outgo, outmatch, outrival, outstrip, out-top, outweigh, overbalance, overbear, overmatch, overpass, overtop, surpass, transcend), претърсвам (draw, fish for, forage around, hunt for, rake over, rake trough, ransack, rummage in, scour, search, seek through), пулсирам (palpitate, pulsate, pulse, throb), бия (bang, chime, club, curry, feeze, go, hammer, hide, hit, kill, knoll, lace, lather, lay, lick, maul, palpitate, peal, pelt, pulsate, pulse, ram, ramrod, ring, rough up, shoot, strike, swingle, thrash, thresh, wallop, welt, whale, whip, whop, zap), блъскам (bump up against, dash, hammer, hustle, jostle, knock, moil, pound, press, push, ram, shove, slam, smite, squash, strike, thump), лавирам (board, claw, tack, trim), заобикалям (begird, beset, bridge, bypass, circumambulate, circumnavigate, circumvent, compass, double, elude, encircle, environ, evade, get round, gird, girdle, leapfrog, make a detour, pass round, round, short circuit, sidestep, skirt, stretch, surround, work round), побеждавам (conquer, defeat, down, fight down, foil, have, lace, lick, master, mop up, overcome, overmaster, overpower, overthrow, overturn, pip, polish off, prevail, scupper, thrash, triumph, trounce, vanquish, whip, whop, win, worst, zap), меся (knead, pug, work), счуквам (grind, levigate, pound), отъпквам, кова (forge, hammer, nail, tilt, work), шибам (cut, drive, flog, lash, scourge, slash, swinge, switch, whale), тупам (jump, vibrate), туптя (go pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, pulsate, pulse, throb, vibrate), разбивам (agitate, beat up, blank, blast, blight, break, break down, break in pieces, break to pieces, burst open, dash, deflate, disrupt, hack, kick in, mill, overwhelm, pry open, scatter, shatter, smash, smash in, smash up, split off, stamp, whip, whip up, wreck), разбивам се (comb, lash), удрям (bang against, bash, biff, blast, bruise, bust, catch, douse, hammer, heel, hit, impact, jam on, knap, knock, lash, lay, peg at, plump, poke, pole-ax, pound, ram, set, shoot, slam, slam on, smash, smite, strike, strike in, thunder, wallop, zap), уморявам (fatigue, jade, tire, weary), затруднявам (complicate, embarrass, encumber, hamper, hinder, nonplus, overwhelm, put out, stick, straiten, stump, trouble). (various references) | |
Chinese | 敲打 . (various references) | |
Czech | bít (batter, chime, hit, larrup, throb), beat, bubnování (rataplan), bubnovat (drum, drum up), porazit (bear down, best, butcher, chop down, conquer, cut down, defeat, fell, hack down, hew, hew down, kill, knock down, overthrow, overturn, run down, smite, stick, strike down, stump, tumble, vanquish), úder (blow, buffet, bump, chop, coup, dash, hit, percussion, push, rap, shock, stroke, swipe, thrust), klepat (knock), napálit (bamboozle, cheat, con, dupe, fool, hoax, slog, take in), odrazit (beat off, fend, fend off, fight off, force back, hold off, intercept, push off, rebut, repel, repulse, return, ricochet, shove off, strike back, throw back, ward off), šlehat (flog, gush out, lash, sting, switch, whip, whisk), překonat (better, bridge, clear, conquer, eclipse, exceed, Excel, get the better of, go beyond, heal, outdo, overcome, refute, surmount, surpass, tide over), zvítìzit nad (conquer, overpower), potlouct, rajón (rayon), takt (bar, delicacy, discretion, measure, tact, time), tlouci do, tlukot (palpation), udávat, vyklepat (hammer out), vynikat nad, vypořádat se s, předèit (Excel, outclass, outdo, outgo, outmatch, surpass, transcend). (various references) | |
Danish | slå (cut, hit, mow, strike). (various references) | |
Dutch | afranselen (beat up, clatter, flog, thrash, thresh, whack). (various references) | |
Esperanto | bati (hit, strike), bastonadi (beat up, flog, thrash, whack). (various references) | |
Faeroese | berja (hit, strike), sláa (cut, hit, mow, strike). (various references |
