beat

Pronunciation: /biːt/

The English word “beat” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

A stroke; a blow.
A pulsation or throb.
A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.
A rhythm.
The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.
The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency.
A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.
The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
An act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
That which beats, or surpasses, another or others.
A precinct.
A place of habitual or frequent resort.
An area frequented by gay men in search of sexual activity. See gay beat.
A low cheat or swindler.
The act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
A smart tap on the adversary's blade.
A makeup look; compare beat one's face.

verb

To hit; to strike.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch boten, botten, butten (“to push, strike”), German boßen (“to thrash”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (*bautan, “to beat, strike”) (whence, probably, Galician and Portuguese botar…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.