in a general signification, signifies to chastise, strike, knock, or vanquish.

This word 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. Sometimes it means to pound, to reduce into powder: Thus we say, to beat drugs, to beat pepper, to beat spices; that is to say, to pulverize them.

in fencing, denotes a blow or stroke given with the sword. There are two kinds of beats; the first performed with the foible of a man's sword on the foible of his adversary's, which in the schools is commonly called baterie, from the French battre, and is chiefly used in a parry, to make an open upon the adversary. The second and best kind of beat is performed with the fort of a man's sword upon the foible of his adversary's, not with a spring, as in binding, but with a jerk or dry beat; and is therefore most proper for the parades without or within the sword, because of the rebound a man's sword has thereby from his adversary's, whereby he procures to himself the better and surer opportunity of riptoofing.

in the manege. A horse is said to beat the dust, when at each stroke or motion he does not take in ground or way enough with his fore-legs. He is more particularly said to beat the dust at terra à terra, when he does not take in ground enough with his shoulders, making his strokes or motions too short, as if he made them all in one place. He beats the dust at curvettes, when he does them too precipitately and too low. He beats upon a walk, when he walks too short, and and thus rids but little ground, whether it be in straight lines, rounds, or paffings.

**Beat of Drum**, in the military art, is to give notice by beat of drum of a sudden danger; or, that scattered soldiers may repair to their arms and quarters, is to beat an alarm, or to arms. Also to signify, by different manners of founding a drum, that the soldiers 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 soldiers to come out of their quarters at break of day; to order to repair to their colours, &c.; is to beat a charge, a retreat, a march, &c.

**Beat**, in clock-making. See Beats.

**Beat, St**, a town of France, in the county of Comminges, at the confluence of the Garonne and the Pique. It is seated between two mountains which are close to the town on each side. The houses are chiefly built with marble. W. Long. i. 6. N. Lat. 42. 50.

**Beater** is applied, in matters of commerce, to divers sorts of workmen, whose business is to hammer or flatten certain matters, particularly metals.

**Gold-Beaters**, are artisans, who, by beating gold and silver with a hammer on a marble in moulds of vellum and bullocks' guts, reduce them to thin leaves fit for gilding, or silvering of copper, iron, steel, wood, &c. Gold-beaters differ from flatters of gold or silver; as the former bring their metal into leaves by the hammer, whereas the latter only flatten it by pressing it through a mill preparatory to beating.

There are also **Tin-Beaters** employed in the looking-glass trade, whose business is to beat tin on large blocks of marble till it be reduced to thin leaves fit to be applied with quicksilver behind looking-glasses. See Foliating, Gold-Beating.

**Beatification**, an act by which the pope declares a person beatified or blessed after his death. It is the first step towards canonization, or raising anyone to the honour and dignity of a saint. No person can be beatified till 50 years after his or her death. All certificates or attestations of virtues and miracles, the necessary qualifications for sanctity, are examined by the congregation of rites. This examination often continues for several years; after which his holiness decrees the beatification. The corpse and relics of the future saint are from thenceforth exposed to the veneration of all good Christians; his images are crowned with rays, and a particular office is set apart for him; but his body and relics are not carried in procession: indulgences likewise, and remission of sins, are granted on the day of his beatification; which though not so pompous as that of canonization, is however very splendid.

**Beating**, or **Pulsation**, in Medicine, the reciprocal agitation or palpitation of the heart or pulse.

**Beating Flax or Hemp**, is an operation in the dressing of these matters, contrived to render them more soft and pliant. When hemp has been twanged a second time, and the hurls laid by, they take the strikes, and dividing them into dozens and half dozens, make them up into large thick rolls, which being broached on long strikes, are let in the chimney corner to dry; after which they lay them in a round trough made for the purpose, and there with beetles beat them well till they handle both without and within as pliant as possible, without any hardness or roughness to be felt; that done, they take them from the trough, open and beating, divide the strikes as before; and if any be found not sufficiently beaten, they roll them up and beat them over as before.

Beating hemp is a punishment inflicted on loose or disorderly persons.

**Beating**, in book-binding, denotes the knocking a book in quires on a marble block, with a heavy broad-faced hammer, after folding, and before binding or stitching it. On the beating it properly, the elegance and excellence of the binding, and the easy opening of the book, principally depends.

**Beating**, in the paper works, signifies the beating of paper on a stone with a heavy hammer, with a large smooth head and short handle, in order to render it more smooth and uniform, and fit for writing.

**Beating the Wind**, was a practice in use in the ancient method of trial by combat. If either of the combatants did not appear in the field at the time appointed, the other was to beat the wind, or make so many flourishes with his weapon; by which he was entitled to all the advantages of a conqueror.

**Beating the Hands or Feet**, by way of praise or approbation. See Applause.

**Beating Time**, in Music, a method of measuring and marking the time for performers in concert, by a motion of the hand and foot up and down successively and in equal times. Knowing the true time of a crotchet, and supposing the measure actually subdivided into four crotchets, and the half measure into two, the hand or foot being up, if we put it down with the very beginning of the first note or crotchet; and then raise it with the third, and then down with the beginning of the next measure; this is called beating the time; and, by practice, a habit is acquired of making this motion very equal. Each down and up is sometimes called a time or measure. The general rule is, to contrive the division of the measure so, that every down and up of the beating shall end with a particular note, on which very much depends the distinctness, and, as it were, the sense of the melody. Hence the beginning of every time or beating in the measure is reckoned the accented part thereof.

Beating time is denoted, in the Italian music, by the term *a battuta*, which is usually put after what they call *recitative*, where little or no time is observed, to denote, that here they are to begin again to mark or beat the time exactly.

The Romans aimed at somewhat of harmony in the strokes of their oars; and had an officer called *porifculus* in each galley, whose business was to beat time to the rowers, sometimes by a pole or mallet, and sometimes by his voice alone.

The ancients marked the rhyme in their musical compositions; but to make it more observable in the practice, they beat the measure or time, and this in different manners. The most usual consisted in a motion of the foot, which was raised from, and struck alternately against, the ground, according to the modern method. Doing this was commonly the province of the master of the music, who was thence called *peripetege* and *nagoge*, because placed in the middle of the choir of musicians, and in an elevated situation, to be seen and heard more easily by the whole company. These beaters of measure were also called by the Greeks... Greeks ποδοπάταις and ποδοπάται, because of the noise of their feet; and συναίσθησις, because of the uniformity or monotony of the rhyme. The Latins denominated them pedarii, podarii, and pedicularii. To make the beats or strokes more audible, their feet were generally trod with a sort of sandals either of wood or iron, called by the Greeks κροκούλας, κροκούλας, κροκούλας, and by the Latins pedicula, seabella, or seambilla, because like to little stools or footstools. Sometimes they beat upon sonorous footstools, with the foot thod with a wooden or iron sole. They beat the measure not only with the foot, but also with the right hand, all the fingers whereof they joined together, to strike into the hollow of the left. He who thus marked the rhythm, was called manuductor. The ancients also beat time or measure with shells, as oyster shells and bones of animals, which they struck against one another, much as the moderns now use catanets, and the like instruments. This the Greeks called κροκούλας, as is noted by Hesychius. The scholiast on Arilophanes speaks much to the same purpose. Other noisy instruments, as drums, cymbals, citerns, &c. were also used on the same occasion. They beat the measure generally in two equal or unequal times; at least this holds of the usual rhythm of a piece of music, marked either by the noise of sandals, or the flapping of the hands. But the other rhythmic instruments last-mentioned, and which were used principally to excite and animate the dancers, marked the cadence after another manner; that is, the number of their percussions equaled, or even sometimes surpassed, that of the different sounds which composed the air or song played.

Beating, with hunters, a term used of a stag, which runs first one way and then another. He is then said to beat up and down.—The noise made by cows in rutting time is also called beating or tapping.