Beat

subs. (common).—1.  A ROUND (q.v.) of duty, work, and the like; a sphere of influence.

  1788.  G. A. STEVENS, The Adventures of a Speculist, i., 211. I was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who swore I should not come in their BEATS until I had paid my ‘footing.’

  1825.  HOOD, Ode to Graham, XXXVII., s.v.

  1835.  DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, ‘The Streets by Morning.’ The costermongers repaired to their ordinary ‘BEATS’ in the suburbs.

  1862.  The Saturday Review, 15 March, 295. Ask him why anything is so and so, and you have got out of his BEAT.

  2.  (American).—A superior; one who (or that which) surpasses (or beats) another: often spec. qualified. As verb = to excel; to surpass: as in a contest, in rivalry; TO BEAT ALL CREATION (TO STICKS—TO RIBANDS—TO FITS—TO BLAZES—TO SHIVERS, etc.) = to surpass everything; TO GET A BEAT ON = to get the advantage of; TO BEAT ONE’S WAY THROUGH = to push one’s interests with vigour and pertinacity.

  1664.  PEPYS, Diary, s.v.

  1759.  J. TOWNLEY, High Life below Stairs, i. 2. Crab was BEAT HOLLOW, Careless threw his rider, and Miss Slammerkin had the distemper.

  c. 1800.  SOUTHEY, Devil’s Walk, s.v.

  1856.  WHITCHER, The Widow Bedott Papers, 77. [The Widder Bedott is] the brazen-facedest critter t’ ever lived—it does BEAT all—I never did see her equill.

  18[?].  Yankee Hill’s Stories [BARTLETT]. Sam Slick was a queer chap. I never see the BEAT of him.

  1854.  WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, i. Talk of climate! a real fine day in England, like a really handsome English woman, BEATS CREATION. Ibid. (1856), Kate Coventry, i. I rode a race against Bob Dashwood the other morning,… and BEAT HIM ALL TO RIBANDS.

  1879.  J. R. LOWELL, Poetical Works, 418, ‘A Familiar Epistle to a Friend.’ And there ’s where I shall BEAT THEM HOLLOW.

  1888.  New York Mercury, 7 Aug. But not only steamboats and locomotives were used by reporters for BEATS, but one newspaper man named Monroe F. Gale made a trip across the Atlantic in a pilot-boat, to get some peculiar news in his own fashion.

  1888.  New York Tribune, 16 May. It is better to have a Carrot for a President than a DEAD BEAT for a son-in-law. In this way, we again score a LIFE BEAT on the galoot ‘The Ripsnorter.’

  1889.  Modern Society, 19 Oct., 1802. Germans BEAT THE ENGLISH HOLLOW at drinking beer.

  Adj.—1.  Overcome; exhausted; done up (q.v.).

  1832.  MOORE, Jerome [Works, II. (1862), 558]. Till fairly BEAT, the saint gave o’er.

  1859.  H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, xxxvii. ‘The lad was getting BEAT, and couldn’t a’gone much further.’

  1868.  DICKENS, Letters (1880), II., 334. I was again DEAD BEAT at the end.

  1879.  W. D. HOWELLS, The Lady of Aroostook (1882), I. 20. ‘Is the lady ill?’ ‘No … a little BEAT out, that’s all.’

  2.  (common).—Baffled; defeated.

  Verb. (American).—1.  See subs.

  2.  (colloquial).—To amaze; to astound; to overcome with surprise.

  3.  (American).—To swindle; to deceive; to cheat.

  1888.  Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 12 April. She BEAT the hotel out of a hundred dollars.

  PHRASES.—TO BEAT THE AIR (the wind, the water) = to strive to no purpose (1375); TO BEAT THE HEELS = to walk to and fro; TO BEAT OVER THE OLD GROUND = to discuss topics already treated; TO BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH = to act cautiously, approach warily or in a roundabout way (1572); TO BEAT UP = to visit unceremoniously; TO BEAT THE BRAIN (HEAD, etc.) = to think persistently; TO BEAT THE BOOBY (or GOOSE) = to strike the hands across the chest and under the armpits to warm them: formerly TO BEAT JONAS; TO BEAT THE ROAD = to travel by rail without paying. THAT BEATS THE DUTCH see DUTCH. TO BEAT DADDY MAMMY = to tattoo, practice the elements of drum beating. TO BEAT DOWN TO BED-ROCK see BEDROCK). BEAT OUT = impoverished, in one’s last straits, hard up. TO BEAT OUT = to exhaust, overpower; TO BE BEATEN OUT = to be impoverished, hard-up, at one’s last straits; TO BEAT THE HOOF = to walk, go on foot; plod, prowl (1596); TO BEAT THE RIB see RIB.

  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3. Trudge, PLOD AWAY, O’ THE HOOF; seek shelter, pack!

  1630.  HOWELL, Familiar Letters, I. i. 17 [1726]. The Secretary was put to BEAT THE HOOF himself, and foot it home.

  1665.  R. HEAD, The English Rogue, I. vi. 59. BEATING THE HOOF we overtook a cart.

  1687.  T. BROWN, The Saints in an Uproar, 82. [Wks. (1730), i. 78.] We BEAT THE HOOFS as pilgrims.

  1691.  WOOD, Athenæ Oxonienses, II. 412. They all BEATED IT ON THE HOOF to London.

  1748.  T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.), s.v. HOOF. TO BEAT THE HOOF, to walk much up and down, to go a-foot.

  1771.  P. PARSONS, Newmarket: or, An Essay on the Turf, II., 163. The frequenters of the Turf, and numberless words of theirs are exotics every where else;—then, how should we have been told of black-legs, and of town-tops; and how, while the author poured upon us, with a torrent of taken-in,—BEAT-HOLLOW,… &c.

  c. 1824.  P. EGAN, Boxiana, iii. 621–2. For Dick had BEAT THE HOOF upon the pad.

  1847.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The Lay of St. Odille), (1877), 55.

  1883.  Times, 15 March, 9, 6. The common labourers at outdoor work were BEATING GOOSE to drive the blood from their fingers.

  1851.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I., 351. The BEATEN OUT mechanics and artisans, who, from want of employment in their own trade, take to making small things. Ibid., p. 400. The last class of street sellers is the BEATEN OUT mechanic or workman.