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beat
/biːt/ verb (past tense beat, past participle beaten, also US beat)Definition
DEFEAT [T] › to defeat someone in a competition: Our team beat Germany 3-1.
HIT [I, T] › to hit a person or animal hard many times: She beat the dog with a stick. She was beaten to death.
SOUND [I, T] › to hit against something hard, making a continuous or regular sound: soldiers beating drums We could hear the pigeons beating their wings. Rain beat against the windows.
GET RID OF [T] › to get rid of something bad: measures to beat crime I'm determined to beat this illness.
HEART [I] › When your heart beats, it makes regular movements and sounds: By the time the doctor arrived, his heart had stopped beating.
BE BETTER [T] › to be better than something: [+ doing sth] Being at the youth club beats sitting at home.
you can't beat sth › used to emphasize that something is best: You can't beat Pedro's for a great pizza.
take a lot of/some, etc beating › to be so good or enjoyable that it is hard to find anything better: This ice cream takes some beating.
FOOD [T] › to mix food using hard, quick movements: Beat the egg whites until they are stiff.
→ See also beat about the bush → See also beat/knock the (living) daylights out of sb → See also off the beaten track (Definition of beat verb from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary
© Cambridge University Press)
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