beat

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To defeat someone in a game, contest, or fight.

   We beat the other team three goals to one.

2. 2
   verb

   To hit someone or something hard and repeatedly.

   He beat the drum with both hands.

3. 3
   noun

   A single stroke or a steady rhythm of sounds.

   I could feel the beat of her heart.

4. 4
   noun

   The main rhythm of a piece of music.

   Everyone danced to the fast beat of the song.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Beat is an Old English verb whose central meaning was “strike blows,” and it is related to beetle in the unrelated sense “heavy mallet.” By Middle English it had developed the sense “overcome,” while the noun appeared in the 16th century and acquired its rhythmic or musical sense through the beating of drums by the 17th century.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-der.? Proto-Germanic *bautaną Proto-West Germanic *bautan Old English bēatan Middle English beten English beat Inherited from Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch boten, botten, butten (“to push, strike”), German boßen (“to thrash”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (*bautan, “to beat, strike”) (whence, probably, Galician and Portuguese botar (“to expel; to throw”)); also Latin fūstis (“club…

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External links

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