beat

Meanings

1. To hit repeatedly.
2. To defeat someone in a game or contest.
3. To make a regular movement, as a heart does.

Example sentences

• "The cook beat the eggs in a bowl."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

• "Our team beat the other team by two goals."

  Level A2, Meaning 2

• "His heart beat fast with excitement."

  Level A2, Meaning 3

• "The rain beat against the window."

  Level B1, Meaning 1

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• defeat : Defeat is a stronger, more formal word for winning against someone. Beat is the everyday word.
• win : Win is to come first. Beat needs an opponent: you beat someone.

Word family and forms

Forms: beats, beat, beaten, beating

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "beat".

• beat a drum
• beat the record
• beat the traffic
• beat the heat
• a heart beat
• beat the eggs

Idioms and phrases

beat around the bush

To avoid talking about the main point.

"Stop beating around the bush and tell me the truth."

off the beaten track

Away from the usual places.

"We found a small cafe off the beaten track."

Origin

Beat comes from Old English beatan, an old Germanic verb meaning to strike or to pound. English has had the word since before the year 900. It is related to Old Norse bauta and German words with the same meaning.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Beat sounds like beet, the red vegetable. A cook can beat a beet, but the words are not the same.

Test yourself

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