The root picture you can hold for 'beat' is a hand or stick coming down on something again and again — not one blow, but a steady stream of blows. Almost everything 'beat' does is some version of this repeated striking: the strokes can stay literal (hitting, , metal), they can settle into a steady pulse (a heart, wings, a , the beat of music), or they can turn into 'striking your opponent down' until you win. Hold onto the repeated downward blow and the whole word opens up.
From the word’s history
From Old English 'beatan' = to strike repeatedly, thrash (PIE root *bhau- 'to strike'). The heart sense (c.1200) came from the heart 'striking' against the breast; the 'win a contest' sense appeared in the 1610s (strike your opponent down); and the hunting sense of striking the bushes to drive game out (c.1400) is where 'beat around the bush' comes from. So the modern spread really does fan out from one literal idea: repeated hitting.
源自古英語 beatan，意思就是「反覆敲打、痛打」（更上溯到原始印歐詞根 *bhau-「打擊」）。心臟的意思（約1200年）來自心臟「撞擊」胸口；「在比賽中贏」的意思出現在1610年代（把對手一路打倒）；而打獵時敲打草叢把獵物趕出來（約1400年）正是「beat around the bush（拐彎抹角）」的由來。所以現代這麼多用法，其實都是從一個很實在的動作扇形展開的：反覆地打。
etymonline.com/word/beat
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料47 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
beatnoun詞源 1/biːt/
- 1
A stroke; a blow.
- He, […]with a careless beat, / Struck out the mute creation at a heat.
- 2
A pulsation or throb.
- a beat of the heart
- the beat of the pulse
- 3
entertainmentlifestylemusicA 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.
- 4
A rhythm.
- I love watching her dance to a pretty drum beat with a bouncy rhythm!
- 5
entertainmentlifestylemusicA rhythm.
- 6
The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
- 7
The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency.
- 8
authorshipbroadcastingcommunicationsA short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
另外 11 個記錄的用法
- 9
An area of a person's responsibility, especially
- to walk the beat
- There has been a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. Our man on the beat saw a light there about two in the morning, and as the house was an empty one, suspected that something was amiss.
- 10
journalismmediaAn area of a person's responsibility, especially
- As an adult, I became a journalist whose beat is the environment. In a way, I’ve turned my youthful preoccupations into a profession.
- 11
datedAn act of reporting news or scientific results before a rival; a scoop.
- It's a beat on the whole country.
- 12
datedThat which beats, or surpasses, another or others.
- the beat of him
- 13
obsoletedatedA precinct.
- 14
datedA place of habitual or frequent resort.
- 15
datedA place of habitual or frequent resort.
- 16
archaicA low cheat or swindler.
- a dead beat
- “If I get away I sha’n’t be here,” I says, “to prove these rapscallions ain’t your uncles, and I couldn’t do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that’s all, though that’s worth something.
- 17
hobbieshuntinglifestyleThe act of scouring, or ranging over, a tract of land to rouse or drive out game; also, those so engaged, collectively.
- Bears coming out of holes in the rocks at the last moment, when the beat is close to them.
- 18
fencinggovernmenthobbiesA smart tap on the adversary's blade.
- 19
slangA makeup look; compare beat one's face.
- She made sure to give fans all the details about her beat in the caption.
beatverb詞源 1/biːt/
- 1
To hit; to strike.
- As soon as she heard that her father had died, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.
- Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat: that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall […]
- 2
To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
- He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
- 3
To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
- […] the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door […]
- The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
- 4
To move with pulsation or throbbing.
- A thousand hearts beat happily.
- O heart, how fares it with thee now, That thou should’st fail from thy desire, Who scarcely darest to inquire, ‘What is it makes me beat so low?’
- 5
To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.
- Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.
- No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him.
- 6
nauticaltransportTo sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
- 7
To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
- The part of the wood to be beaten for deer sloped all the way from the roadside to the loch.
- 8
To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
- Beat the eggs and whip the cream.
另外 11 個記錄的用法
- 9
To persuade the seller to reduce a price.
- He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
- 10
To indicate by beating or drumming.
- to beat a retreat; to beat to quarters
- 11
To tread, as a path.
- While I this unexampled task essay, / Pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way, / Celestial Dove! divine assistance bring, / Sustain me on thy strong-extended wing,
- 12
To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
- I know not why any one should waste his time, and beat his head about the Latin grammar, who does not intend to be a critick, or make speeches, and write dispatches in it.
- 13
To be in agitation or doubt.
- to still my beating mind
- 14
To make a sound when struck.
- The drums beat.
- 15
governmentmilitarypoliticsTo make a succession of strokes on a drum.
- The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
- 16
To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and lesser intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations not perfectly in unison.
- 17
To arrive at a place before someone.
- He beat me there.
- The place is empty; we beat the crowd of people who come at lunch.
- 18
vulgarslangTo have sexual intercourse.
- Bruv, she came in just as we started to beat.
- Millie B gets ten shags a week. New day, different guy, that's just peek. You can't name a guy that you haven't tried to beat. You can't name a guy that you haven't tried to beat.
- 19
slangTo rob; to cheat or scam.
- He beat me out of 12 bucks last night.
- I already beat him, but he hasn't realized it yet.
beatverb詞源 2/biːt/
- 1
simple past tense of beat
beatadj詞源 2/biːt/
- 1
slangExhausted.
- After the long day, she was feeling completely beat.
- I stayed in San Francisco a week and had the beatest time of my life. Marylou and I walked around for miles, looking for food-money.
- 2
slangDilapidated, beat up.
- Dude, you drive a beat car like that and you ain’t gonna get no honeys.
- 3
Having impressively attractive makeup.
- Her face was beat for the gods!
- 4
slangBoring.
- 5
slangUgly.
beatnoun詞源 3/biːt/
- 1
A beatnik.
- The beats were pioneers with no destination, changing the world one impulse at a time.
beatadj詞源 3/biːt/
- 1
Relating to the Beat Generation.
- beat poetry
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。