beat to

English

Etymology

Shortening of beat to the punch.(Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Verb

beat to (third-person singular simple present beats to, present participle beating to, simple past beat to, past participle beaten to)

(transitive) To arrive (somewhere) more quickly (than someone else); to succeed (at something) more quickly (than someone else).
Zumbetel wanted to beat Yalpatel to launching the planet's first pocket-sized satellite phone.

I wanted to gather up all the pinecones, but you beat me to it!

Translations

Spanish: atrasar (es) (Peru), ganar la delantera, adelantarse (es)

Anagrams

tobeat