beat – English verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to beat a retreat
Participle: beaten a retreat
Gerund: beating a retreat

Cognates

See the 2 cognates of beat

Indicative

Subjunctive

Conditional

Imperative

you	beat a retreat
we	Let's beat a retreat
you	beat a retreat

Indicative

Conditional

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

to engage in sexual intercourse

bang, bauf, boff, boink, bone, bonk, bop, bounce, breed, bump nasties, bump uglies, catch a dick, cohabit, company, copulate, couple, dance, discuss Uganda, do it, do the deed, do the nasty, eff, engender, exchange flesh, expletive deleted, feck, frack, frak, frig, fuck, get busy, get freaky, get it, get it on, get jiggy, get laid, get one's end away, get one's freak on, get one's groove on, get one's leg over, get one's oats, get physical, get some, go all the way, graft the forked tree, haul one's ashes, have it off, have marital relations, have sex, have sexual relations, hump, intercourse, jig-jig, make it, make love, make the beast with two backs, make whoopee, mate, meddle, ming, play, ride, rock and roll, roger, roll around, root, see someone's etchings, sex, shag, share a bed, shelve, show someone one's etchings, slap bellies, sleep together, stick, tumble, wango tango

to apply violent force to a person or object

abuse, aggress, assault, attack, beleaguer, bepommel, beset, besiege, bombard, charge, dust up, fall on, fall upon, hit, impugn, invade, lay into, lay siege, let someone have it, light into, onfall, onset, overrun, pommel, pound, rush, set the dogs upon, set upon, storm, strike, strike at, wap, whap

to administer a physical blow

bang, baste, batter, belabor, blow, boom-boom, buffet, butt, dab, dash, dowse, fetch one a blow, flap, give toco, hammer, hit, kick, knock, lunge, pat, patter, pelt, pink, poke, pound, pummel, punch, rap, slam, slap, strike, swap, tap, thrash, thump, thwack, whack, whip, yerk

strike

hit, batter, punch, cudgel, knock, pound, buffet, thrash

conquer

defeat, vanquish, rout, trounce, win, outdo, surpass, whip

forge

break, hammer, stamp, pound

Antonyms

conquer

surrender, yield, forfeit

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. O.E. beatan "inflict blows on, thrash" (class VII strong verb; past tense beot, pp. beaten), from P.Gmc. *bautan (cf. O.N. bauta, O.H.G. bozan), from PIE base *bhau- "to strike" (see batter (v.)). Of the heart, c.1200, from notion of it striking against the breast. Meaning "to overcome in a contest" is from 1611. Meaning "strike cover to rouse or drive game" (M.E.) is source of beat around the bush (1572), the metaphoric sense of which has shifted from "make preliminary motions" to "avoid, evade." Command beat it "go away" first recorded 1906 (though "action of feet upon the ground" was a sense of O.E. betan). Dead-beat (originally "tired-out") preserves the old pp. To beat (someone) up is c.1900. To beat off "masturbate" is recorded by 1960s. For beat generation, see beatnik.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-der.?
4. Proto-Germanic *bautaną
5. Proto-West Germanic *bautan
6. Old English bēatan
7. Middle English beten
8. English beat
9. Inherited from Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”).
10. Cognates
11. Cognate with Dutch boten, botten, butten (“to push, strike”), German boßen (“to thrash”), Gothic *𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (*bautan, “to beat, strike”) (whence, probably, Galician and Portuguese botar (“to expel; to throw”)); also Latin fūstis (“club, cudgel, knobbed stick, staff”), *fūtō (“to strike”), Albanian bahe, hobe (“sling”), Armenian բութ (butʻ), բույթ (buytʻ, “thumb”). See: Middle English 'beten', Middle English 'beten', Proto-Germanic '*bautaną', Dutch 'boten', German, old spelling 'boßen'.

Verbs referencing "beat"

Latin refuto, German, old spelling boßen, German, old spelling boßeln, German, old spelling bosseln, Bulgarian буцам.

Sample Sentences