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A beat of the drum or sound of the bugle as a signal to troops to assemble.

t; auxiliary. Genius and learning . . . are mutually and greatly assistant to each other. Beattie.

make accordant. Wake to energy each social aim, Attuned spontaneous to the will of Jove. Beattie.

ess; cupidity. To desire money for its own sake, and in order to hoard it up, is avarice. Beattie.

The act of avoiding or shunning; keeping clear of. "The avoidance of pain." Beattie.

In the game of backgammon, to beat by ending the game before the loser is clear of his first "table".

reverse manner, way, or direction; contrarily; as, to read backwards. We might have . . . beat them backward home. Shak.

To beat down; to cheapen; to barter; to bargain.

er as if to fly; or to hover, as a hawk when she stoops to her prey. "Kites that bait and beat." Shak.

A wheel which regulates the beats or pulses of a watch or chronometer, answering to the pendulum of a clock; -- often called simply a balance.

To beat to and fro, as a ball in playing at bandy. Like tennis balls bandied and struck upon us . . . by rackets from without. Cudworth.

To beat, as with a club or cudgel; to treat with violence; to handle roughly. The desperate tempest hath so banged the Turks. Shak.

To beat with a stick; to cudgel. One man was basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his back through the waters. Pepys.

A sound beating with a stick or cudgel. Specifically: A form of punishment among the Turks, Chinese, and others, consisting in beating an offender on the soles of his feet.

To strike or hit with a bat or a pole; to cudgel; to beat. Holland.

To lessen by retrenching, deducting, or reducing; to abate; to beat down; to lower. He must either bate the laborer's wages, or not employ or not pay him. Locke.

A mode of catching birds at night, by holding a torch or other light, and beating the bush or perch where they roost. The birds, flying to the light, are caught with nets or otherwise.

A short bat for beating clothes in washing them; -- called also batler, batling staff, batting staff. Shak.

To beat with successive blows; to beat repeatedly and with violence, so as to bruise, shatter, or demolish; as, to batter a wall or rampart.

1. (Mil.) An engine used in ancient times to beat down the walls of besieged places.