The Collaborative International Dictionary
Beat \Beat\ (b[=e]t), v. t. [imp. Beat; p. p. Beat, Beaten; p. pr. & vb. n. Beating.] [OE. beaten, beten, AS. be['a]tan; akin to Icel. bauta, OHG. b[=o]zan. Cf. 1st Butt, Button.]
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To strike repeatedly; to lay repeated blows upon; as, to beat one's breast; to beat iron so as to shape it; to beat grain, in order to force out the seeds; to beat eggs and sugar; to beat a drum.
Thou shalt beat some of it [spices] very small.
--Ex. xxx. 36.They did beat the gold into thin plates.
--Ex. xxxix. 3. To punish by blows; to thrash.
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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. -
To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.
A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.
--Milton. -
To tread, as a path.
Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way.
--Blackmore. -
To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game, etc.; to vanquish, defeat, or conquer; to surpass or be superior to.
He beat them in a bloody battle.
--Prescott.For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that.
--M. Arnold. To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with out. [Colloq.]
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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. (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 baffle or stump; to defy the comprehension of (a person); as, it beats me why he would do that.
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to evade, avoid, or escape (blame, taxes, punishment); as, to beat the rap (be acquitted); to beat the sales tax by buying out of state. 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.)
To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a horse.
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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.
Usage examples of "to beat off".
Give it another fifteen or twenty years, and Mathison is going to be the sort of colony that has to beat off applicants with a stick.
The Malwa commander will be counting on them to beat off any flank attack.
He tried to dodge, dropped the thing he held, raising his arms to beat off the serpent.
Between the Marines' heavy weapons and unusual tactics and the additional guards, they might be able to beat off a few attacks.
The walls of the town were designed to stop the occasional Scourge or hostile Shin raiding party, not to beat off the sort of serious attack that was directed at Nopet Nujam.
A hundred or so of those who might rally to her side will manage to confuse the Loyalists just long enough to allow Rashelle the First to set up her New Order firmly enough to beat off whatever resistance might develop.