Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEAT, n.

1. A stroke; a striking; a blow, whether with the hand, or with a weapon.
2. A pulsation; as the beat of the pulse.
3. The rise or fall of the hand or foot, in regulating the divisions of time in music.
4. A transient grace-note in music, struck immediately before the note it is intended to ornament. – Busby. In the military art, the beat of drum, is a succession of strokes varied, in different ways, for particular purposes; as to regulate a march, to call soldiers to their arms or quarters, to direct an attack or retreat, &c. The beat of a watch or clock, is the stroke made by the fangs or pallets of the spindle of the balance, or of the pads in a royal pendulum. – Encyc.

BEAT, or BEAT'EN, pp.

Struck; dashed against; pressed or laid down; hammered; pounded; vanquished; made smooth by treading; worn by use; tracked.

BEAT, v.i.

1. To move with pulsation, as the pulse beats; or to throb, as the heart beats.
2. To dash with force, as a storm, flood, passion, &c.; as, the tempest beats against the house.
3. To knock at a door. – Judges xix.
4. To fluctuate; to be in agitation. – Shak. To beat about, to try to find; to search by various means or ways. – Addison. To beat upon, to act upon with violence. – Jonah. Also, to speak frequently; to enforce by repetition. – Hooker. To beat up for soldiers, is to go about to enlist men into the army. In seamanship, to beat, is to make progress against the direction of the wind, by sailing in a zigzag line or traverse. – Mar. Dict. With hunters, a stag beats up and down, when he runs first one way and then another. – Encyc.

BEAT, v.t. [pret. beat; pp. beat, beaten. Sax. beatan, gebeotan, to beat; gebeaten, beaten; W. bæzu; Fr. battre, or batre; Sp. batir; Port. bater; It. battere; L. batuo; Russ. botayu; Ar. خَبَطَ gabata, and كَبَتَ kabata; Heb. Ch. Syr. חבט, habat. Perhaps, Hindoo, pata; to kill; Burman, potai, id.; as we say, to smite and to slay. Hence, the oirpata, man-killers, in Herodotus. Class Bd, Nos. 20, 23, 33. See Abate.]

1. To strike repeatedly; to lay on repeated blows with a stick, with the hand or fist, or with any instrument, and for any cause, just or unjust, or for punishment. – Luke xii. Deut xxv.
2. To strike an instrument of music; to play on, as a drum. – Shak.
3. To break, bruise, comminute, or pulverize by beating or pounding, as pepper or spices. – Ex. xxx.
4. To extend by beating, as gold or other malleable substance; or to hammer into any form; to forge. – Ex. xxxix.
5. To strike bushes; to shake by beating, or to make a noise to rouse game. – Prior.
6. To thresh; to force out corn from the husk by blows. – Ruth.
7. To break, mix or agitate by beating; as, to beat an egg with any other thing. – Boyle.
8. To dash or strike, as water; to strike or brush, as wind. – Milton.
9. To tread, as a path. – Blackmore.
10. To overcome in a battle, contest or strife; to vanquish or conquer; as, one beats another at play. Pyrrhus beat the Carthaginians at sea. – Arbuthnot.
11. To harass; to exercise severely; to over-labor as, to beat the brains about logic. – Hakewill. To beat down, to break, destroy, throw down, by beating or battering, as a wall. Also, to press down or lay flat, as by treading, by a current of water, by violent wind, &c. – Shak. Also, to lower the price by importunity or argument. Also, to depress or crush; as, to beat down opposition. Also, to sink or lessen the price or value. Usury beats down the price of land. – Bacon. To beat back, to compel to retire or return. To beat into, to teach or instill, by repetition of instruction. To beat up, to attack suddenly; to alarm or disturb; as, to beat up an enemy's quarters. To beat the wing, to flutter; to move with fluttering agitation. To beat off, to repel or drive back. To beat the hoof, to walk; to go on foot. To beat time, to measure or regulate time in music by the motion of the hand or foot. In the manege, a horse beats the dust, when at each motion he does not take in ground enough with his fore legs; and at curvets, when he does them too precipitately, or too low. He beats upon a walk, when he walks too short. – Encyc. To beat out, to extend by hammering. In popular use, to be beat out, is to be extremely fatigued; to have the strength exhausted by labor or exertion.

BEAT'ER, n.

1. One who beats, or strikes; one whose occupation is to hammer metals.
2. An instrument for pounding, or comminuting substances.

BEAT'ER-UP, n.

One who beats for game; a sportman's term. – Butler.

BEATH, v.t.

To bathe. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

BE-A-TIF'IC, or BE-A-TIF'IC-AL, a. [L. beatus, blessed, from beo, to bless, and facio, to make. See Beatify.]

That has the power to bless or make happy, or the power to complete blissful enjoyment; used only of heavenly fruition after death; as, beatific vision. – Milton.

BE-A-TIF'IC-AL-LY, adv.

In such a manner as to complete happiness.

BE-AT-I-FI-CA'TION, n.

In the Romish church, an act of the Pope by which he declares a person beatified or blessed after death. This is the first step toward canonization, or the raising of one to the dignity of a saint. No person can be beatified till 50 years after his death. All certificates or attestations of his virtues and miracles are examined by the congregation of rites, and this examination continues often for years; after which His Holiness decrees the beatification, and the corpse and relics of the intended saint are exposed to the veneration of all good Christians. – Encyc.

BE-AT'I-FY, v.t. [L. beatus, happy, from beo, to bless, and facio, to make.]

1. To make happy; to bless with the completion of celestial enjoyment.
2. In the Romish church, to declare by a decree or public act, that a person is received into heaven, and is to be reverenced as blessed, though not canonized.

BEAT'ING, n.

The act of striking or giving blows; punishment or chastisement by blows. The beating of flax and hemp is an operation which renders them more soft and pliable. For this purpose, they are made into rolls and laid in a trough, where they are beat till no roughness or hardness can be felt. – Encyc. In book-binding, beating is performed by laying the book in quires or sheets folded, on a block, and beating it with a heavy broad-faced hammer. On this operation the elegance of the binding and the easy opening of the book chiefly depend. – Encyc. Beating the wind, was a practice in the ancient trial by combat. If one of the combatants did not appear on the field, the other was to beat the wind, by making flourishes with his weapons; by which he was entitled to the advantages of a conqueror. Beatings, in music, the regular pulsative swellings of sound produced in an organ by pipes of the same key, when not in unison, and their vibrations not simultaneous or coincident. – Busby.

BEAT'ING, ppr.

Laying on blows; striking; dashing against; conquering; pounding; sailing against the direction of the wind, &c.

BE-AT'I-TUDE, n. [L. beatitudo, from beatus, beo. See Beatify.]

1. Blessedness; felicity of the highest kind; consummate bliss; used of the joys of heaven.
2. The declaration of blessedness made by our Savior to particular virtues.

BEAU, n. [bo; plur. Beaux, boze; Fr. beau, contracted from bel; L. bellus; Sp. and It. bello, fine, gay, handsome.]

A man of dress; a fine, gay man; one whose great care is to deck his person. In familiar language, a man who attends a lady.

BEAU-ES-PRIT, a. [bo-espree; Fr.]

A wit.

BEAU-I-DE'AL, n. [bo-ide'al; Fr.]

A model of excellence in the mind or fancy.

BEAU'ISH, a. [bo'ish.]

Like a beau; foppish; fine.

BEAU-MONDE', n. [bo-mond; Fr. beau, fine, and monde, world.]

The fashionable world; people of fashion and gaiety. – Prior.

BEAU'TE-OUS, a. [bu'teos; See Beauty.]

Very fair; elegant in form; pleasing to the sight; beautiful; very handsome. It expresses a greater degree of beauty than handsome, and is chiefly used in poetry.

BEAU'TE-OUS-LY, adv. [bu'teously.]

In a beauteous manner; in a manner pleasing to the sight; beautifully.

BEAU'TE-OUS-NESS, n. [bu'teousness.]

The state or quality of being beauteous; beauty.

BEAU'TI-FI-ED, pp. [bu'tified.]

Adorned, made beautiful.

BEAU'TI-FI-ER, n. [bu'tifier.]

He or that which makes beautiful.

BEAU'TI-FUL, a. [bu'tiful. beauty and full.]

1. Elegant in form; fair; having the form that pleases the eye. It expresses more than handsome. A beautiful woman is one of the most attractive objects in all nature's works. – Anon. A circle is more beautiful than a square; a square is more beautiful than a parallelogram. – Lord Kames.
2. Having the qualities which constitute beauty, or that which pleases the senses other than the sight; as, a beautiful sound. – Encyc.