[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

beat \beat\, v. i.
   1. to strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock
      vigorously or loudly.
      1913 webster

            the men of the city . . . beat at the door.
                                                  --judges. xix.
                                                  22.
      1913 webster

   2. to move with pulsation or throbbing.
      1913 webster

            a thousand hearts beat happily.       --byron.
      1913 webster

   3. to come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force;
      to strike anything, as rain, wind, and waves do.
      1913 webster

            sees rolling tempests vainly beat below. --dryden.
      1913 webster

            they winds beat at the crazy casement.
                                                  --longfellow.
      1913 webster

            the sun beat upon the head of jonah, that he
            fainted, and wished in himself to die. --jonah iv.
                                                  8.
      1913 webster

            public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
                                                  --bacon.
      1913 webster

   4. to be in agitation or doubt. poetic
      1913 webster

            to still my beating mind.             --shak.
      1913 webster

   5. naut. to make progress against the wind, by sailing in a
      zigzag line or traverse.
      1913 webster

   6. to make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
      1913 webster

   7. mil. to make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the
      drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
      1913 webster

   8. acoustics  mus. to sound with more or less rapid
      alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to
      produce a pulsating effect; -- said of instruments, tones,
      or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
      1913 webster

   a beating wind naut., a wind which necessitates tacking
      in order to make progress.

   to beat about, to try to find; to search by various means
      or ways. --addison.

   to beat about the bush, to approach a subject circuitously.
      

   to beat up and down hunting, to run first one way and
      then another; -- said of a stag.

   to beat up for recruits, to go diligently about in order to
      get helpers or participators in an enterprise.

   to beat the rap, to be acquitted of an accusation; --
      especially, by some sly or deceptive means, rather than to
      be proven innocent.
      1913 webster
see also:
a beating wind to beat about to beat about the bush to beat up and down to beat up for recruits to beat the rap 

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