The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Beat \Beat\, v. i.
   1. To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock
      vigorously or loudly.
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            The men of the city . . . beat at the door.
                                                  --Judges. xix.
                                                  22.
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   2. To move with pulsation or throbbing.
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            A thousand hearts beat happily.       --Byron.
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   3. To come or act with violence; to dash or fall with force;
      to strike anything, as rain, wind, and waves do.
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            Sees rolling tempests vainly beat below. --Dryden.
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            They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
                                                  --Longfellow.
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            The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he
            fainted, and wished in himself to die. --Jonah iv.
                                                  8.
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            Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
                                                  --Bacon.
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   4. To be in agitation or doubt. [Poetic]
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            To still my beating mind.             --Shak.
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   5. (Naut.) To make progress against the wind, by sailing in a
      zigzag line or traverse.
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   6. To make a sound when struck; as, the drums beat.
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   7. (Mil.) To make a succession of strokes on a drum; as, the
      drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
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   8. (Acoustics & Mus.) To sound with more or less rapid
      alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to
      produce a pulsating effect; -- said of instruments, tones,
      or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
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   A beating wind (Naut.), a wind which necessitates tacking
      in order to make progress.

   To beat about, to try to find; to search by various means
      or ways. --Addison.

   To beat about the bush, to approach a subject circuitously.


   To beat up and down (Hunting), to run first one way and
      then another; -- said of a stag.

   To beat up for recruits, to go diligently about in order to
      get helpers or participators in an enterprise.

   To beat the rap, to be acquitted of an accusation; --
      especially, by some sly or deceptive means, rather than to
      be proven innocent.
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