beats

Noun

• 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)
• a regular route for a sentry or policeman
• the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart
• the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music
• 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
• a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior
• the sound of stroke or blow
• (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse
• a regular rate of repetition
• a stroke or blow
  • "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe"
• the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing
• plural of beat

Verb

• come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
• give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
• hit repeatedly
• move rhythmically
• shape by beating
• make a rhythmic sound
• glare or strike with great intensity
• move with a thrashing motion
• sail with much tacking or with difficulty
• stir vigorously
• strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music
• be superior
  • "Reading beats watching television"
  • "This sure beats work!"
• avoid paying
• make a sound like a clock or a timer
• move with a flapping motion
• indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks
• move with or as if with a regular alternating motion
• make by pounding or trampling
• produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly
• strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting
• beat through cleverness and wit
• be a mystery or bewildering to
  • "This beats me!"
• wear out completely
• third-person singular simple present indicative of beat

Synonyms

amaze, baffle, beat, beat generation, beat out, beat up, beatnik, beatniks, bewilder, bunk, cadence, circumvent, crush, drum, dumbfound, exhaust, flap, flummox, get, gravel, heartbeat, measure, meter, metre, musical rhythm, mystify, nonplus, outfox, outsmart, outwit, overreach, perplex, pose, pound, pulsate, pulsation, pulse, puzzle, quiver, rhythm, round, scramble, shell, stick, stupefy, thrum, thump, tick, ticktack, ticktock, trounce, tucker, tucker out, vanquish, vex, wash up, work over