beat adj : very tired; "was all in at the end of the day"; "so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere"; "bushed after all that exercise"; "I'm dead after that long trip" [syn: all in(p), beat(p), bushed(p), dead(p)]

1 a regular route for a sentry or policeman; "in the old days a policeman walked a beat and knew all his people by name" [syn: round]

2 the rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart; "he could feel the beat of her heart" [syn: pulse, pulsation, heartbeat]

3 the basic rhythmic unit in a piece of music; "the piece has a fast rhythm"; "the conductor set the beat" [syn: rhythm, musical rhythm]

4 a single pulsation of an oscillation produced by adding two waves of different frequencies; has a frequency equal to the difference between the two oscillations

5 a member of the beat generation; a nonconformist in dress and behavior [syn: beatnik]

6 the sound of stroke or blow; "he heard the beat of a drum"

7 (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse [syn: meter, metre, measure, cadence]

8 a regular rate of repetition; "the cox raised the beat"

9 a stroke or blow; "the signal was two beats on the steam pipe"

10 the act of beating to windward; sailing as close as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing

1 come out better in a competition, race, or conflict; "Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"; "We beat the competition"; "Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game" [syn: beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish]

2 give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression; "Thugs beat him up when he walked down the street late at night"; "The teacher used to beat the students" [syn: beat up, work over]

3 hit repeatedly; "beat on the door"; "beat the table with his shoe"

4 move rhythmically; "Her heart was beating fast" [syn: pound, thump]

5 shape by beating; "beat swords into ploughshares"

6 make a rhythmic sound; "Rain drummed against the windshield"; "The drums beat all night" [syn: drum, thrum]

7 glare or strike with great intensity; "The sun was beating down on us"

8 move with a thrashing motion; "The bird flapped its wings"; "The eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky" [syn: flap]

9 sail with much tacking or with difficulty; "The boat beat in the strong wind"

10 stir vigorously; "beat the egg whites"; "beat the cream" [syn: scramble]

11 strike (a part of one's own body) repeatedly, as in great emotion or in accompaniment to music; "beat one's breast"; "beat one's foot rhythmically"

12 be superior; "Reading beats watching television"; "This sure beats work!"

13 avoid paying; "beat the subway fare" [syn: bunk]

14 make a sound like a clock or a timer; "the clocks were ticking"; "the grandfather clock beat midnight" [syn: tick, ticktock, ticktack]

15 move with a flapping motion; "The bird's wings were flapping" [syn: flap]

16 indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks; "Beat the rhythm"

17 move with or as if with a regular alternating motion; "the city pulsated with music and excitement" [syn: pulsate, quiver]

18 make by pounding or trampling; "beat a path through the forest"

19 produce a rhythm by striking repeatedly; "beat the drum"

20 strike (water or bushes) repeatedly to rouse animals for hunting

21 beat through cleverness and wit; "I beat the traffic"; "She outfoxed her competitors" [syn: outwit, overreach, outsmart, outfox, circumvent]

22 be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me" [syn: perplex, vex, stick, get, puzzle, mystify, baffle, pose, bewilder, flummox, stupefy, nonplus, gravel, amaze, dumbfound]

23 wear out completely; "This kind of work exhausts me"; "I'm beat"; "He was all washed up after the exam" [syn: exhaust, wash up, tucker, tucker out] [also: beaten]beaten adj

1 beaten repeatedly with heavy blows; "a battered child"; "the battered woman syndrome" [syn: battered]

2 formed or made thin by hammering; "beaten gold"

3 much trodden and worn smooth or bare; "did not stray from the beaten path" [syn: beaten(a)]beaten See beat

English

Pronunciation

• /'bitən/

• Rhymes: -iːtən

Adjective

beaten

1. hit, knock.

Verb

beaten

1. past participle of beat

expert-subject Law Battery is a term used by the common law jurisdictions, which involves an injury or other contact upon the person of another in a manner likely to cause bodily harm.

United States

At common law, simple battery is a misdemeanor and the elements of the offense are:

The prosecutor must prove each element beyond a reasonable doubt. The common law elements serve as a basic template, but individual jurisdictions may alter them and they may vary slightly from state to state.

Under modern statutory schemes, battery is often broken down into gradations for the purposes of determining the severity of punishment. For example:

• Simple battery may include any form of non-consensual, harmful or insulting contact, regardless of the injury caused. Criminal battery requires an intent to inflict an injury on another, as distinguished from a tortious battery.
• Sexual battery may be defined as non-consensual touching of the intimate parts of another.
• Family violence battery may be limited in its scope between persons within a certain degree of relationship: statutes with respect to this offense have been enacted in response to increasing awareness of the problem of domestic violence.
• Aggravated battery is generally regarded as a serious offense of felony grade, involving the loss of the victim's limb or some other type of permanent disfigurement of the victim. As successor to the common law crime of mayhem, this is sometimes subsumed in the definition of aggravated assault.

In some jurisdictions, battery has recently been constructed to include directing bodily secretions at another person without their permission. In some jurisdictions this automatically is considered aggravated battery.

In some jurisdictions, the charge of criminal battery also requires evidence of a mental state (mens rea).

Distinction Between Battery and Assault

As a first approximation to the distinction between battery and assault:

• the overt behavior of an assault might be A advancing upon B by chasing after him and swinging a fist at his head, while
• that of an act of battery might be A actually striking B.

England and Wales

In the law of England and Wales, battery is not graded, although there are separate offences of an assault occasioning actual bodily harm and infliction of grievous bodily harm. Battery consists merely in unlawfully touching another (thus no particular injury is necessary). The offence is at common law (s.39 Criminal Justice Act 1988 only provides for court jurisdiction and sentencing). It is to be distinguished from an assault where the victim is caused to apprehend the immediate commission of a battery. English law also does not recognise any offence of sexual battery, rather having the offence of sexual assault which is the non-consensual touching of another in a sexual manners. 3 Sexual Offences Act 2003. There is no separare offence relating to incidents of domestic violence, except in the case of death where the offence of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult may have been committed (s. 5 Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004).

Under English law, a battery has only been committed if the correct mens rea can be proven. In the case of battery, the mens rea, or fault element, of the offence is intention or recklessness (see R v. Venna [1976] QB 421). A person acts intentionally in respect of a result when it is his purpose to bring it about or if he foresees that the result is a virtually certain consequence of his action and nonetheless acts (see R v. Woollin [1998] 4 All ER 103, although this decision specifically applies to the law of murder, it is generally accepted that this definition of intention applies throughout the criminal law). A person acts recklessly in respect of a result when he is aware of a risk that the result will occur if he acts and does so act where no reasonable person would (see R v. Cunningham [1957] 2 QB 396).

See also

• Actual bodily harm
• Crime
• Grievous bodily harm
• Beating up

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