BEAT, in its most general acceptation, signifies to chastise, strike, knock, or vanquish. But it has several other significations in the manufactures, and in the arts and trades. Sometimes it signifies to forge and hammer; in which sense smiths and farriers say, to beat iron: some-
times it means to pound, to reduce into powder; thus, to beat drugs, to beat pepper, to beat spices, that is, to pulverize them.