1. [n]  the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
2. [n]  a stroke or blow; "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe"
3. [n]  a regular rate of repetition; "the cox raised the beat"
4. [n]  the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music; "the piece has a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat"
5. [n]  (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
6. [n]  the sound of stroke or blow; "he heard the beat of a drum"
7. [n]  the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart; "he could feel the beat of her heart"
8. [n]  a regular route for a sentry or policeman; "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name"
9. [n]  a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
10. [n]  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
11. [v]  be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"
12. [v]  wear out completely; "This kind of work exhausts me"; "I'm beat"; "He was all washed up after the exam"
13. [v]  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"
14. [v]  beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors"
15. [v]  make by pounding or trampling; "beat a path through the forest"
16. [v]  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"
17. [v]  hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe"
18. [v]  strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
19. [v]  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"
20. [v]  stir vigorously; "beat the egg whites"; "beat the cream"
21. [v]  shape by beating; "beat swords into ploughshares"
22. [v]  produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly; "beat the drum"
23. [v]  move with or as if with a regular alternating motion; "the city pulsated with music and excitement"
24. [v]  move rhythmically; "Her heart was beating fast"
25. [v]  indicate by beating; as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm"
26. [v]  sail with much tacking or with difficulty; "The boat beat in the strong wind"
27. [v]  move with a flapping motion; "The bird's wings were flapping"
28. [v]  move with a thrashing motion; "The bird flapped its wings"; "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky"
29. [v]  glare or strike with great intensity; "The sun was beating down on us"
30. [v]  make a rhythmic sound; "Rain drummed against the windshield"; "The drums beat all night"
31. [v]  make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight"
32. [v]  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"
33. [v]  be superior; "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work!"

Beat
Beat

more details ...

1. \Beat\, 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?zan. Cf. 1st {Butt}, {Button}.]
   1. 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.
   2. To punish by blows; to thrash.
   3. 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.
   4. To dash against, or strike, as with water or wind.
            A frozen continent . . . beat with perpetual storms.
                                                  --Milton.
   5. To tread, as a path.
            Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way.
                                                  --Blackmore.
   6. To overcome in a battle, contest, strife, race, game,
      etc.; to vanquish or conquer; to surpass.
            He beat them in a bloody battle.      --Prescott.
            For loveliness, it would be hard to beat that. --M.
                                                  Arnold.
   7. To cheat; to chouse; to swindle; to defraud; -- often with
      out. [Colloq.]
   8. 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.
   9. (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 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.)
      (a) To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a
          horse.
      (b) 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.
   

2. \Beat\, v. i.
   1. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock
      vigorously or loudly.
            The men of the city . . . beat at the door.
                                                  --Judges. xix.
                                                  22.
   2. To move with pulsation or throbbing.
            A thousand hearts beat happily.       --Byron.
   3. To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force;
      to strike anything, as, rain, wind, and waves do.
            Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below. --Dryden.
            They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
                                                  --Longfellow.
            The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he
            fainted, and wisbed in himself to die. --Jonah iv.
                                                  8.
            Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
                                                  --Bacon.
   4. To be in agitation or doubt. [Poetic]
            To still my beating mind.             --Shak.
   5. (Naut.) To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a
      zigzag line or traverse.
   6. To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
   7. (Mil.) To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the
      drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
   8. (Acoustics & Mus.) To sound with more or less rapid
      alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to
      produce a pulsating effect; -- said of instruments, tones,
      or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
   {A beating wind} (Naut.), a wind which necessitates tacking
      in order to make progress.
   {To beat about}, to try to find; to search by various means
      or ways. --Addison.
   {To beat about the bush}, to approach a subject circuitously.
   {To beat up and down} (Hunting), to run first one way and
      then another; -- said of a stag.
   {To beat up for recruits}, to go diligently about in order to
      get helpers or participators in an enterprise.
   

3. \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.)
      (a) 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.
      (b) 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.
   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. [Low]
   {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 {clock}, the stroke or sound made by
      the action of the escapement. A clock is in beat or out of
      beat, according as the strokes is at equal or unequal
      intervals.
   

4. \Beat\, a.
   Weary; tired; fatigued; exhausted. [Colloq.]
         Quite beat, and very much vexed and disappointed.
                                                  --Dickens.
   

5. \Beat\, n.
   1. One that beats, or surpasses, another or others; as, the
      beat of him. [Colloq.]
   2. The act of one that beats a person or thing; as:
      (a) (Newspaper Cant) The act of obtaining and publishing a
          piece of news by a newspaper before its competitors;
          also, the news itself; a scoop.
                It's a beat on the whole country. --Scribner's
                                                  Mag.
      (b) (Hunting) The act of scouring, or ranging over, a
          tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those
          so engaged, collectively. ``Driven out in the course
          of a beat.'' --Encyc. of Sport.
                Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the
                last moment, when the beat is close to them.
                                                  --Encyc. of
                                                  Sport.
      (c) (Fencing) A smart tap on the adversary's blade.