beat

beat

noun

Definition of BEAT

1

a hard strike with a part of the body or an instrument <delivered one hard beat on the drums>

Synonyms bang, bash, bat, beat, belt, biff, bop, box, buffet, bust, chop, clap, clip, clout, crack, cuff, dab, douse [British], fillip, hack, haymaker, hit, hook, knock, larrup [dialect], lash, lick, pelt, pick, plump, poke, pound, punch, rap, slam, slap, slug, smack, smash, sock, spank, stinger, stripe, stroke, swat, swipe, switch, thud, thump, thwack, wallop, welt, whack, wham, whop (also whap)

Related Words counter, counterblow, counterpunch, counterstroke; body blow, hand, kick, knee, left, one-two, rabbit punch, right, right-hander, roundhouse, shiver, sidewinder, sucker punch, swing, uppercut; cruncher, kayo, knockdown, knockout, KO; bastinado (or bastinade), battering, beating, bludgeoning, clobbering, cudgeling (or cudgelling), drubbing, hammering, lambasting, licking, pasting, pounding, pummeling (also pummelling), thrashing; flogging, walloping, whip, whipping

2

a rhythmic expanding and contracting <a single beat of the heart is said to be all that separates the vice president from the presidency>

Synonyms beat, beating, palpitation, pulse, throb

Related Words fluctuation, oscillation, vibration; quiver, tremble, tremor

3

the recurrent pattern formed by a series of sounds having a regular rise and fall in intensity <moved to the beat of the music>

Synonyms beat, cadence, measure, meter

Related Words accent, accentuation, emphasis, stress; backbeat; drum, throb; lilt, movement, sway, swing; hexameter, pentameter, tetrameter, trimeter

4

a very small space of time <within a beat he was on the phone complaining about an error in his bill>

Synonyms beat, eyeblink, flash, heartbeat, jiff, jiffy, minute, moment, nanosecond, New York minute, second, shake, split second, trice, twinkle, twinkling, wink

Related Words microsecond; snatch, spurt

Near Antonyms aeon (or eon), age, eternity, forever; infinity, lifetime