Meaning & use
beat
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To win against an opponent or to do better than someone in a contest.
Grammar: Takes an object: beat the champion.
Patterns
- beat someone at something
- beat someone to something
Our team beat the visitors by two goals.
She beat her brother at chess again.
They beat the traffic by leaving early.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To hit something or someone again and again.
Grammar: Often with against or on: rain beat against the glass.
Patterns
- beat on something
- beat something against something
Heavy rain beat against the windows all night.
He beat the dust out of the rug.
The drummer beat the drum faster.
verbtransitive
To mix food quickly with a whisk or spoon.
Grammar: Used in cooking, with eggs, cream or batter.
Patterns
- beat the eggs
- beat something until smooth
Beat the eggs until they are pale and fluffy.
She beat the cream with a whisk.
Beat the batter well before baking.
nouncountablemusic
A regular pulse in music or the rhythm of the heart.
Grammar: Often with the: dance to the beat.
Patterns
- the beat of something
- keep the beat
The drum set the beat for the song.
Her heart skipped a beat.
He tapped his foot to the beat.
nouncountable
The area regularly covered by a police officer or reporter.
Grammar: Often with on: on the beat.
Patterns
- on the beat
- a crime beat
The officer walked her beat each night.
He covers the education beat for the paper.
The reporter had the city hall beat.
adjectiveafter a verbinformal
Very tired.
Grammar: Used after be or feel.
Patterns
- be beat
I'm beat after the long drive.
She was too beat to cook.
We felt beat after the marathon.
Word forms
| third person singular | beats |
|---|---|
| past tense | beat |
| past participle | beaten |
| -ing form | beating |
Common combinations
- beat the odds
- The patient beat the odds and recovered.
- beat the traffic
- We left at dawn to beat the traffic.
- beat around the bush
- Stop beating around the bush and tell me.
- beat a path
- Crowds beat a path to the new shop.
- off the beaten track
- We found a village off the beaten track.
- beat a record
- She beat the national record.
Synonyms and how they differ
- defeat
- Defeat is more formal and usually used for serious contests like wars or elections.
- hit
- Hit is a single strike, while beat suggests repeated blows.
- whisk
- Whisk is a cooking word for lighter mixing, usually with air.
- rhythm
- Rhythm is the overall pattern, whereas beat is each regular pulse.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: beat or beet?
beat vs beet
Beet is a red root vegetable and sounds the same as beat, but only beat is the verb of winning.
Practice
We left at five a.m. so we could ___ the morning rush hour.
Choose one answer.
Beat the traffic means to avoid it by being earlier. The other verbs do not collocate with rush hour.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “beat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.