beat out
English
[edit]Verb
[edit]beat out (third-person singular simple present beats out, present participle beating out, simple past beat out, past participle beaten out or beat out)
- To sound a rhythm on a percussion instrument such as a drum.
- The drummer beat out a steady slow march.
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto II:
- The seasons bring the flower again,
And bring the firstling to the flock;
And in the dusk of thee, the clock
Beats out the little lives of men.
- To extinguish.
- He managed to beat the flames out with a blanket.
- (US) To defeat by a narrow margin.
- She beat out three other contenders to claim the prize.
- To work out fully.
- To make gold or silver leaf out of solid metal.
- To bash a hole in.
- (baseball, of a runner) To reach base after a bunt or groundball.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 13:
- I then made another ſign that I wanted Drink. They found by my eating, that a ſmall Quantity would not ſuffice me, and being a moſt ingenious People, they flung up with great dexterity one of their largeſt Hogſheads, then rolled it towards my Hand, and beat out the top; I drank it off at a Draught, which I might well do, for it did not hold half a pint, and taſted like a ſmall Wine of Burgundy, but much more delicious.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see beat, out.