B E A 
To tread a path. To make a path by marking it with 
tracks.—He that will know the truth of things, mu ft leave 
the common and beaten track. Locke. —lo conquer; to 
fubdue ; to vanqhilh ; 
If Hercules and Lichas play at dice, 
Which is the better man ? The greater throw 
May turn by fortune from the weaker hand : 
So is Alcides beaten by his page. Shakefpcare. 
To harrafs ; to over-labour.—It is no point of wifdom for 
a man to beat his brains, and fpend his (pints,- about things 
impoflible. Hake will. —To lay, or pre'fs, as (landing corn 
by hard weather: 
Her own (hall blefs her; 
Her foes (hake like a field of beaten corn, 
And hang their heads with forrow. Shakefpcare. 
To deprefs; to crufh by repeated oppofition : ulually with 
the particle down ; 
Such an unlook’d for ftorm of ills falls on me, 
It beats down all my ftrength. Addifon. 
To drive by violence with a particle.— I he younger part 
of mankind might be beat off from the belief of the mod 
important points even of natural religion, by the impudent 
jefts of a profane wit. Watts. —To move with fluttering 
agitation : 
Thrice have I beat the wing, and rid with night 
About the world. Dry den. 
To Beat Down. To endeavour by treaty to leffen the 
p-rice demanded. To fink or leffen the value.—Ufury beats 
down the price of land ; for the employment of money is 
chiefly either merchandizing or purchafing ; and uiury 
waylays both. Bacon. 
To Beat Up. To attack fuddenly; to alarm.—They 
lay in that quiet pofture, without making the lead impref- 
fion upon the enemy by beating up his quarters, which 
might eafily have been done. Clarendon. 
To Beat the Hoof. To walk; to go on foot. 
To Beat, v. n. To move in a pulfatory manner. — I 
would gladly underhand the formation of a foul, and fee 
it beat the firft confcious pulfe. Collier. —To dafh as a flood 
or ftorm : 
Your brow, which does no fear of thunder know, 
Sees rowlings tempefts vainly beat below. Dryden. 
To knock at a door.—The men of the city befet the houfe 
round about, and beat at the door, and fpake to the mafter 
of the houfe. Judges .— To move with frequent repetitions 
of the fame art or ftroke. — A man’s heart beats, and the 
blood circulates, which it is not in his power, by any 
thought or volition, to flop. I.ocke. —To throb ; to be in 
agitation, as a fore'(welling. Toflurtuate; to-be in agi¬ 
tation : 
The temped in my mind 
Doth from my fenfes take all feeling elfe, 
Save what beats there. Shakefpcare. 
To try different ways; to fearch : with about. 
To find an honed man, I beat about 
And love*him, court him, praife him, in or out. Tope. 
To art upon with violence.—The fun beat upon the head 
of Jonah, that he fainted, and v/ilhed in himlelf to die. 
Jonah. —To fpeak frequently ; to repeat; to enforce by 
repetition: with upon. —How frequently and fervently doth 
the feripture beat upon this caufe ! Hakewill. 
Jo Beat Up ; as, to beat up for foldiers. The word up 
feems redundant, but enforces the fenfe; the technical 
term being, to raife foldiers. 
Beat, participle pajfive. 
Like a rich veffel beat by (forms to fliore, 
’Twere madnefs ftiould I venture out once more. Dryden. 
Beat ,f. Stroke. Manner of (Inking.—Albeit the bafe 
and treble firings of a viol be tuned to an unifon, yet the 
B,E A 83 1 
I former will dill make a bigger found than the latter, as 
making a broader beat upon the air. Grew .■—Manner of 
being (Iruck ; as, the beat of the pulfe, or a drum. 
Beat,/: in fencing, denotes a blow or ftroke given with 
the fword. 
Beat,/: in the manege. A horfe is faid to beat thedufl, 
when at each ftroke or motion he does not take in ground 
or way enough w ith his fore-legs. He is more particu¬ 
larly faid to beat the duff at terra a terra, when he does 
not take in ground enough with his (houlders, making his 
ftrokes or motions too (hort, as if he made them all in one 
place. He beats the dujl at curvets, when he does them too 
precipitately and too low. He beats upon a walk, when he 
walks too (hort, and thus rids but little ground, whether 
it be ftraight lines, rounds, or partings. 
Beat of a Drum,/ - , in the military art, is to give no¬ 
tice by beat of drum of a hidden danger; or, that fcat- 
tered loldiers may repair to their arms and quarters, is to 
beat an alarm, or to arms. Alio to fignify, by different 
manners of founding a drum, that the foldiers are to fall 
on the enemy ; to retreat before, in, or after, an attack ; 
to move or march from one place to another; to permit 
the foldiers to come out of their quarters at break of day j. 
to order to repair to their colours, Sc c. is to heat a charge, 
a retreat, a march, &c. 
BEAT'EN, participle adjective. 
What makes you, fir, fo late abroad 
Without a guide, in this no beaten road ? Dryden. 
BEAT'ER,/: An inftrument with which any thing is 
comminuted or mingled.—Beat all your mortar with a 
beater three or four times over, before you life it; for' 
thereby you incorporate the fand and lime well together. 
Moxon. —A perfon much given to blows.—The heft fchool. 
mafter of our timew-as the greateft beater. Afcham. 
BEATI'FIC, or Beatifical, adj. [ beatijicus , low 
Lat. from beatus, happy.] That which has the power of 
making happy, or completing fruition; blifsful. It is ufed 
only of heavenly fruition after death.—We may contem¬ 
plate upon the greatnefs and ftrangenefs of the beatific vi- 
(ion ; how a created eye ftiould be fo fortified, as to bear 
all thofe glories that dream from the fountain of uncreated 
light. South. 
BE ATI'FIC ALLY, adv. In fiich a manner as to com¬ 
plete happinefs. — Beatfically to behold the face of God,, 
in the fulnefs of wifdom, righteoufnefs, and peace, is blef- 
fednefs no way incident unto the creatures beneath man. 
Hakewill. 
BEATIFICATION,/: A term ufed in the Romifli 
church, diftinguifhed from canonization. Beatification is 
an acknowledgement made by the pope, that the perfon 
beatified is in heaven, and therefore may be reverenced 
as blelfed ; but is not a conceflion of the honours due to 
faints, which are conferred by canonization. 
To BEATIFY, v. a. To make happy ; to blefs with 
the completion of celeftial enjoyment.—The ufe of fpi- 
ritual conference is unimaginable and unfpeakable, efpe- 
cially if free and unreftrained, bearing an image of that 
converfation which is among angels and beatified faints. 
Hammond. —To fettle the character of any perfon, by a- 
public acknowledgement that he is received into heaven, 
though he is not inverted with the dignity of a faint. 
BEATIL'LES,/ - . in cookery, tid-bits, as cock’s combs, 
livers, gizzards, See. 
BEATING,/! Corrertion ; punifhment by blows.—. 
Beating hemp is a puniftiment inflirted on loofe or di(or¬ 
derly perfons. 
Beating, or Pulsation,/: in medicine, the reci¬ 
procal agitation or palpitation of the heart or pul(e. 
Beating,/: in book-binding, denotes the hammering 
a book in quires on a marble block, with a heavy broad¬ 
faced hammer, after folding, and before ditching if. On 
the beating it properly, the elegance and excellence of the 
binding, and the eafy opening of the book, depend. 
Beating the Wind, was a practice in ufe in the an. 
cient 
