What is "deadbeat"

dead beat \dead` beat"\ (d[e^]d`b[=e]t"), deadbeat \dead"beat`\(d[e^]d"b[=e]t`). a loafer, sponger, or swindler; especially, one who does not pay his debts. Same as Beat, n., 7. [Low, U.S.]

Beat \Beat\, n.

1. A stroke; a blow.

   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.)

   1. 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.

   2. 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; analogously, for newspaper reporters, the subject or territory that they are assigned to cover; as, the Washington 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; also, deadbeat.

   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 Beat of a clock, the stroke or sound made by the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of beat, according as the stroke is at equal or unequal intervals.

"worthless sponging idler," 1863, American English slang, perhaps originally Civil War slang, from dead (adj.) + beat. Earlier used colloquially as an adjectival expression to mean "completely beaten" (1821), and perhaps the base notion is of "worn out, good for nothing." It is noted in a British source from 1861 as a term for "a pensioner."\n\nIn England "dead beat" means worn out, used up. ... But here, "dead beat" is used, as a substantive, to mean a scoundrel, a shiftless, swindling vagabond. We hear it said that such a man is a beat or a dead beat. The phrase thus used is not even good slang. It is neither humorous nor descriptive. There is not in it even a perversion of the sense of the words of which it is composed. Its origin is quite beyond conjecture.

["Americanisms," in "The Galaxy," January 1878]

a. 1 (context of an instrument English) having a damped needle that stops without oscillation 2 defaulting on one's debts 3 defeated or exhausted n. 1 A lazy and/or irresponsible person who is often unemployed, often depending upon wealthy or otherwise financially stable people for support. 2 A person who defaults on debts.

n. someone who fails to meet a financial obligation [syn: defaulter]

Deadbeat may refer to:

• Deadbeat, the stage name of Canadian electronica musician Scott Montieth
• Deadbeats a 1977 film, starring Chris Mulkey
• Dead Beat, a 1994 film based on the life of real-life serial killer Charles Schmid
• Deadbeat (TV series), a 2014 Hulu original TV series
• Dead Beat (The Dresden Files), a 2005 book of the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher
• Dead-beat control, a problem in discrete control theory of finding an optimal input sequence that will bring the system output to a given setpoint in a finite number of time steps
• Deadbeat parent, a parent that has freely chosen not to financially support their children
• Anchor escapement, a type of escapement in clocks, a variation of which is called "deadbeat escapement"

Deadbeat is an American supernatural comedy series created by Cody Heller and Brett Konner about medium Kevin Pacalioglu, played by Tyler Labine, and was first released on Hulu on April 9, 2014. Three seasons were broadcast before Hulu canceled the series on June 5, 2016.