to beat about
- phrasal verb
- /biːt əˈbaʊt/
- UK
:
buscar a tientas
- In his frustration, he started to beat about the garden, hoping to find the lost toy among the flowers.
Examples
-
Cedric, let me not beat about the bush.
-
l wish you wouldn't beat about the bush.
-
Let me not beat about the bush, Cedric.
-
I won't beat about the bush.
-
I won't beat about the bush, sir.
-
Listen, don't beat about the bush, Marcus.
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Oh, don't beat about the bush, Arthur.
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There's no use beating about the bush, Edith.
-
She was so worried about finding her wallet that she began to beat about the house, looking in every corner.
-
After hours of searching for her keys, he was beating about the office in a panic, checking every drawer.
Synonyms
5
6.5
To feel around with your hands to find something
3
7.2
To look around or think hard to find something you need
1
5.6
To look in a worried way for an idea or solution
To search carefully through things in a small place like a bag or box
Antonyms
How Frantic
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a clear link between 'beat' (especially the sense of beating vegetation to drive out or search for something) and 'about' (around), so a learner could plausibly infer a basic meaning of moving around searching. However, the anxious/disorganized nuance and the shift from literal striking to searching is metaphorical and not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Beat about may come from the picture of people using sticks to beat bushes about them to scare out animals while they searched. So it now means 'to search anxiously in many places'.