beat one's meat

present singular third person beats one's meat · participle present beating one's meat · participle past beaten one's meat · alternative beat the meat

1. euphemisticslangvulgarTo masturbate manually by stroking or rubbing one's penis.

   I beat my meat instead of having intercourse.

   1948, Psychiatric quarterly (New York State Dept. of Mental Hygiene), volume 22, page 243

   3 more examples

   7. Is masturbation harmful? Does it cause acne, etc.? 8. How does a girl beat her meat?

   1967, American Academy of Psychotherapists, Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy, page 41

   You get in a heat, you get in a sulk But you still keep a-beating your meat to pulp And you're an orgasm addict,

   1977, “Orgasm Addict”, performed by Buzzcocks

   After that greatest Peeper since Tom, Duck Prick-puller Allsop, had made watching bowers where he could lie in comfort and see the sex-active grubs and molls at it, beat his own meat and pleasure himself with some smooth thick stick.

   1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 143

   Synonyms: masturbate

2. broadlyslangvulgarTo waste time; to engage in an unproductive activity.

   He had had the theory that all this space stuff was just the Soviet Union beating its meat, shooting off into space. Other than that he couldn't imagine the slightest use for it all. Space was, after all, space — with nothing in it.

   1991, William Barton, Michael Capobianco, Fellow Traveler, Spectra, →ISBN

   Synonyms: fanny about, spin one's wheels