to beat hell

transitive verb beat, beaten, beating

1. to hit or strike repeatedly; pound
2. to punish by striking repeatedly and hard; whip, flog, spank, etc.
3. to dash repeatedly against: waves beat the shore
4. 1. to form by repeated treading or riding: to beat a path through grass
   2. to keep walking on: to beat the pavements
5. to shape or flatten by hammering; forge
6. to mix by stirring or striking repeatedly with a utensil; whip (an egg, cream, etc.)
7. to move (esp. wings) up and down; flap; flail
8. to hunt through; search: the posse beat the countryside for the fugitive
9. to make, force, or drive by or as by hitting, flailing, or pounding: to beat one's way through a crowd, to beat chalk dust from erasers
10. 1. to defeat in a race, contest, or struggle; overcome
    2. to outdo or surpass
    3. to act, arrive, or finish before
11. to mark (time or rhythm) by tapping, etc.
12. to sound or signal, as by a drumbeat
13. Informal to baffle or puzzle
14. ☆ Informal to cheat or trick
15. ☆ Slang to avoid the penalties associated with (a charge, indictment, etc.); escape (a rap)

Origin: ME beten < OE beatan < IE *bhaut- < base *bhau-, *bhū-, to strike, beat > beetle, butt & butt, L fustis, a club

intransitive verb

1. to strike, hit, or dash repeatedly and, usually, hard
2. to move or sound rhythmically; throb, pulsate, vibrate, tick, etc.
3. to strike about in or hunt through underbrush, woods, etc. for game
4. to take beating or stirring: this cream doesn't beat well
5. 1. to make a sound by being struck, as a drum
   2. to beat a drum, as to sound a signal
6. Informal to win
7. Naut. to progress by tacking into the wind
8. Radio to combine two waves of different frequencies, thus producing an additional frequency equal to the difference between these

noun

1. a beating, as of the heart
2. any of a series of blows or strokes
3. any of a series of movements or sounds; throb
4. 1. a habitual path or round of duty: a policeman's beat
   2. the subject or area assigned regularly to a news writer
5. 1. the unit of musical rhythm: four beats to a measure
   2. the accent or stress in the rhythm of verse or music
   3. the gesture of the hand, baton, etc. used to mark this
6. Ballet a movement in which one leg is brought in contact with the other or both legs are brought together in the air
7. ☆ Informal a person or thing that surpasses: you never saw the beat of it
8. ☆
   1. beatnik
   2. any of a group of U.S. writers in the 1950s and 1960s whose work grew out of and expressed beat attitudes
9. Acoustics the regularly recurring fluctuation in loudness of sound produced by two simultaneous tones of nearly equal frequency
10. ☆ Journalism a reporting of a news item ahead of all rivals; scoop
11. Naut. a tack into the wind
12. Radio one cycle of a frequency formed by beating

adjective

1. Informal tired out; exhausted, physically or emotionally
2. ☆ of or belonging to a group of young persons, esp. of the 1950s, rebelling against conventional attitudes, dress, speech, etc., largely as an expression of social disillusionment