WordNet
beat about
v. search anxiously [syn: cast about, cast around]
Usage examples of "beat about".
He then began to beat about, in the same language and in the same manner as if he had been beating for a hare.
I can sense them when others beat about the bushes in the darkness.
Then over her head came a sound of flapping and rending as the evening wind beat about the face of the wood.
The noise rose to a jagged scream that beat about their heads, and then abruptly stopped as the sound passed beyond hearing.