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beat

beat

91 6.0
A route a police officer regularly walks or drives
  • noun
  • /biːt/
translation icon : recorrido de patrulla
  • After years on the beat, the patrol officer knows all the residents by name.
  • walk the beat
  • beat cop

Is this this cop a harness bull, or as we would say, a beat cop, right.

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Examples

  • In a survey of court reporters, half said they had been on the beat for more than six years.

    Academic text (2000)
  • i owe it to every cop who's walked a beat, every cop who's made a bust, who's ever laid his life on the line!

  • You could buy, have a lot more cops on the beat, pay cops more and, you know, arm them and so on.

  • So he had the police beat for that, that organization.

  • A couple of beat cops.

  • You're a beat cop now, so be a beat cop.

  • The way I had it figured, I was working one of the toughest beats in the country.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • In tough times, he'd kept his oath to protect and serve, just like the thousands who walk their beats every day.

  • Between 1995 and 1999, the typical neighborhood beat meeting was attended by about seventeen residents.

    Academic text (2001)
  • Here's what you don't do your first day on the beat.

Idioms

To succeed despite great difficulty or low chances

to beat to a pulp
  • Offensive
15 7.6

Hit someone many times until they are badly hurt or win against them very clearly

To do something before someone else to get an advantage

on the beat
  • Literature
10 5.5

Working in one area, usually as a police officer or reporter

to skip a beat
  • Informal
9 6.1

To feel your heart stop for a moment because you are suddenly excited or scared

To finish something before the time runs out

To defeat someone by using their own methods

3 5.5

To act immediately and confidently without pausing

3 7.7

Win easily by a lot against another person or team

Search carefully in many places to find someone or something

To speak or act strongly to support a cause

to beat feet
  • Slang
2 9.0

To leave quickly to escape or avoid something

To move or act together at the same time in the same way

To work very hard or to threaten to hit someone

1 9.0

Hit someone many times until they are badly hurt

to beat my brain
  • Informal
1 8.2

To think very hard to remember something or to solve a problem

to beat the band
  • Informal
1 8.9

To do something with great energy and excitement

To leave a place quickly to avoid danger or trouble

To do much better than people expected

Push away a lot of people or fans as a joke about being too popular

9.1

Show deep regret by hitting your chest and crying

to beat one's meat
  • Offensive
9.9

To touch his own penis to feel sexual pleasure

To change weapons into tools for peaceful work like farming

to beat the bishop
  • Offensive
9.9

To touch your own private parts to make yourself sexually excited

9.9

Get up very early before sunrise

9.9

A person or thing that looks very ugly, said as a joke

7.5

Always alert and ready to react to news and events

Compounds

2 8.0

A group of American writers and artists from the 1950s who reject social rules and choose free creative lives

beat combo
  • Archaic
1 6.5

A small band that plays rhythm music for dancing

beat music
  • Archaic
1 4.0

A style of pop rock from 1960s Britain with strong rhythms and simple melodies

staccato beat
  • Specialized
1 6.1

Short, sharp musical sounds that have clear gaps between notes

type beat
  • Jargon
7.7

A music track made in the style of a popular artist

How Large

to district
  • Formal
5.8
sector
  • Jargon
320 3.6
precinct
  • US
245 6.2
beat
91 6.0
post
560 3.1

Surface Forms

beat singular
beats plural

Etymology

A police beat is the area an officer walks often, and the word comes from the idea of 'beating' the streets by walking them again and again. So a beat is the regular route someone patrols.