beat into fits

verb

To surpass or defeat utterly.

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Meanings

verbbeat into fits (third-person singular simple present beats into fits, present participle beating into fits, simple past beat into fits, past participle beaten into fits)

present singular third person beats into fits · participle present beating into fits · participle past beaten into fits

  1. slangtransitiveTo surpass or defeat utterly.

    We shall be beaten into fits, for the child plays like an angel, as she does everything, and I am only a clumsy little imp, as you know.

    1886, Elizabeth Lynn Linton, Paston Carew, Millionaire and Miser, page 175
    1 more example

    I do not mean to say Sir Hercules could in a walk carry as much flour as a miller's horse; but he would beat him into fits, and bring him to a stand still, with 17st. on each of their backs in a gallop […]

    1845, Sporting Magazine, volume 5, page 378
Cite this entry
APA

beat into fits. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beat%20into%20fits

MLA

“beat into fits.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beat%20into%20fits. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beat into fits,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beat%20into%20fits.

Source: beat into fits on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.