Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.