beat

A stroke; a blow.

He, […]with a careless beat, / Struck out the mute creation at a heat.

A pulsation or throb.

a beat of the heart

the beat of the pulse

A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.

A rhythm.

I love watching her dance to a pretty drum beat with a bouncy rhythm!

A rhythm.

To hit; to strike.

As soon as she heard that her father had died, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.

Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat: that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall […]

To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.

He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.

To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.

[…] the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door […]

The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.

To move with pulsation or throbbing.

A thousand hearts beat happily.

O heart, how fares it with thee now, ⁠That thou should’st fail from thy desire, ⁠Who scarcely darest to inquire, ‘What is it makes me beat so low?’

To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.

Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.

No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him.

simple past tense of beat