To beat someone or something means to hit them several times very hard.
If you beat someone in a game, you defeat them.
The past tense of beat is beat. The -ed participle is beaten.
If you win a war, fight, game, or contest, you defeat your opponent. The past tense and -ed participle of win is won /wʌn/.
Don't say that someone 'wins' an enemy or opponent. In a war or battle, you say that one side defeats the other.
In a game or contest, you say that one person or side defeats or beats the other.
Imperative |
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beat |
beat |
Noun | 1. | ![]() |
2. | ![]() periodic event, recurrent event - an event that recurs at intervals diastole - the widening of the chambers of the heart between two contractions when the chambers fill with blood systole - the contraction of the chambers of the heart (especially the ventricles) to drive blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery | |
3. | ![]() backbeat - a loud steady beat downbeat - the first beat of a musical measure (as the conductor's arm moves downward) syncopation - a musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat musical time - (music) the beat of musical rhythm | |
4. | beat - 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 oscillation, vibration - (physics) a regular periodic variation in value about a mean | |
5. | ![]() beat generation, beatniks, beats - a United States youth subculture of the 1950s; rejected possessions or regular work or traditional dress; for communal living and psychedelic drugs and anarchism; favored modern forms of jazz (e.g., bebop) recusant, nonconformist - someone who refuses to conform to established standards of conduct | |
6. | ![]() sound - the sudden occurrence of an audible event; "the sound awakened them" | |
7. | ![]() catalexis - the absence of a syllable in the last foot of a line or verse scansion - analysis of verse into metrical patterns common meter, common measure - the usual (iambic) meter of a ballad metrical foot, metrical unit, foot - (prosody) a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm | |
8. | beat - a regular rate of repetition; "the cox raised the beat" | |
9. | ![]() stroke - a single complete movement | |
10. | beat - the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing sailing - riding in a sailboat | |
Verb | 1. | ![]() walk over - beat easily; "The local team walked over their old rivals for the championship" eliminate - remove from a contest or race; "The cyclist has eliminated all the competitors in the race" whomp - beat overwhelmingly get the best, have the best, overcome - overcome, usually through no fault or weakness of the person that is overcome; "Heart disease can get the best of us" get the jump - be there first; "They had gotten the jump on their competitors" outsmart, outwit, overreach, circumvent, outfox, beat - beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors" outdo, outgo, outmatch, outperform, outstrip, surpass, exceed, surmount - be or do something to a greater degree; "her performance surpasses that of any other student I know"; "She outdoes all other athletes"; "This exceeds all my expectations"; "This car outperforms all others in its class" defeat, get the better of, overcome - win a victory over; "You must overcome all difficulties"; "defeat your enemies"; "He overcame his shyness"; "He overcame his infirmity"; "Her anger got the better of her and she blew up" surmount, master, overcome, subdue, get over - get on top of; deal with successfully; "He overcame his shyness" outfight - to fight better than; get the better of; "the Rangers outfought the Maple Leafs"; "The French forces outfought the Germans" checkmate, mate - place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game; "Kasparov checkmated his opponent after only a few moves" immobilise, immobilize - make defenseless outplay - excel or defeat in a game; "The Knicks outplayed the Lakers" |
2. | ![]() strong-arm - use physical force against; "They strong-armed me when I left the restaurant" soak - beat severely pistol-whip - beat with a pistol rough up - treat violently; "The police strong-armed the suspect" flog, lash, lather, trounce, welt, whip, slash, strap - beat severely with a whip or rod; "The teacher often flogged the students"; "The children were severely trounced" kayo, knock cold, knock out - knock unconscious or senseless; "the boxing champion knocked out his opponent in a few seconds" | |
3. | ![]() full - beat for the purpose of cleaning and thickening; "full the cloth" beat - strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting beat - 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" beetle - beat with a beetle bastinado - beat somebody on the soles of the feet strike - deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon; "The teacher struck the child"; "the opponent refused to strike"; "The boxer struck the attacker dead" whang - beat with force paste - hit with the fists; "He pasted his opponent" hammer - beat with or as if with a hammer; "hammer the metal flat" | |
4. | beat - move rhythmically; "Her heart was beating fast" move - move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion; "He moved his hand slightly to the right" pulsate, pulse, throb - expand and contract rhythmically; beat rhythmically; "The baby's heart was pulsating again after the surgeon massaged it" thrash - beat so fast that (the heart's) output starts dropping until (it) does not manage to pump out blood at all beat - indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm" flap - move noisily; "flags flapped in the strong wind" | |
5. | ![]() | |
6. | ![]() beat - indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm" | |
7. | ![]() glare - shine intensely; "The sun glared down on us" | |
8. | ![]() move, displace - cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense; "Move those boxes into the corner, please"; "I'm moving my money to another bank"; "The director moved more responsibilities onto his new assistant" flutter - flap the wings rapidly or fly with flapping movements; "The seagulls fluttered overhead" bate - flap the wings wildly or frantically; used of falcons clap - cause to strike the air in flight; "The big bird clapped its wings" | |
9. | ![]() sail - travel on water propelled by wind; "I love sailing, especially on the open sea"; "the ship sails on" | |
10. | ![]() cookery, cooking, preparation - the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat; "cooking can be a great art"; "people are needed who have experience in cookery"; "he left the preparation of meals to his wife" cream - make creamy by beating; "Cream the butter" | |
11. | ![]() beat - hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe" strike - deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon; "The teacher struck the child"; "the opponent refused to strike"; "The boxer struck the attacker dead" | |
12. | beat - be superior; "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work!" be - have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun); "John is rich"; "This is not a good answer" | |
13. | beat - avoid paying; "beat the subway fare" | |
14. | beat - make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight" | |
15. | ![]() move - move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion; "He moved his hand slightly to the right" flap, beat - move with a thrashing motion; "The bird flapped its wings"; "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky" clap - strike the air in flight; "the wings of the birds clapped loudly" | |
16. | ![]() beat - produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly; "beat the drum" | |
17. | beat - move with or as if with a regular alternating motion; "the city pulsated with music and excitement" move - move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion; "He moved his hand slightly to the right" | |
18. | ![]() | |
19. | ![]() music - an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner play - perform music on (a musical instrument); "He plays the flute"; "Can you play on this old recorder?" beat - indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm" | |
20. | ![]() beat - hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe" | |
21. | ![]() | |
22. | ![]() baffle, bewilder, dumbfound, flummox, mystify, nonplus, perplex, puzzle, amaze, stupefy, gravel, vex, pose, stick, get befuddle, confound, confuse, discombobulate, fox, bedevil, fuddle, throw - be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly; "These questions confuse even the experts"; "This question completely threw me"; "This question befuddled even the teacher" riddle - set a difficult problem or riddle; "riddle me a riddle" | |
23. | ![]() wear down, wear out, wear upon, weary, tire out, fatigue, jade, outwear, tire, wear - exhaust or get tired through overuse or great strain or stress; "We wore ourselves out on this hike" frazzle - exhaust physically or emotionally; "She was frazzled after the visit of her in-laws" play - exhaust by allowing to pull on the line; "play a hooked fish" kill - tire out completely; "The daily stress of her work is killing her" | |
Adj. | 1. | ![]() colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech tired - depleted of strength or energy; "tired mothers with crying babies"; "too tired to eat" |