beat up

present singular third person beats up · participle present beating up · nonstandard past beated up · participle past beaten up · nonstandard participle past beated up · alternative beat-up

1. transitiveTo give a severe beating to; to assault violently with repeated blows.

   I got beaten up by thugs on my way home.

   2 more examples

   You don't beat people up, so that you can live in a society where nobody would beat you up.

   If anyone wondered why the liner went straight at the panzerschiff, Fegen's reasoning was clear. The 11-inch guns could hit him at long range, but the short-barrelled 6-inch on his own ship couldn't range out quite as far. So, to start beating up Admiral Scheer, he had to get closer.

   2022 December 3, Drachinifel, 5:25 from the start, in HMS Jervis Bay - Guide 312, archived from the original on 16 May 2023

   Synonyms: do over, rough up, work over

2. transitiveTo wake up earlier than (somebody).

   I wanted to beat you up this morning and make breakfast for you for once.

3. obsoleteTo attack suddenly; to alarm.

   At Breach of Wall, or Hedge-ſurprize, ¶ She ſhar’d in th’ hazard and the prize : ¶ At beating quarters up, or forrage, ¶ Behav’d her ſelf with matchleſſe courage ;

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “Canto II”, in Hudibras. The First Part. […], London: […] J. G. for Richard Marriot, […], →OCLC, page 49

   4 more examples

   On this occaſion, the diligent prior o St. Andrews aſſembled 600 horſe, with which he aſſailed the French, beat up their quarters, intercepted their proviſions, and cut off their ſtraggling parties.

   1770, John Belfour, A New History of Scotland, pages 137–138

   Our people are daily gaining Health Spirits and Discipline — the spade & pick axe throw'd aside — for the British Rebels to take up — they notwithstanding affect to hold us cheap and threaten to beat up our Quarters — if we don’t beat up theirs first which is in Contemplation, this in time.

   1777 June 7, Anthony Wayne, letter to Sharp Delany from the Camp at Mount Prospect 7th June 1777, in 1893, Charles Stillé, Major-General Anthony Wayne and the Pennsylvania Line in the Continental Army, page 6

   "We know for certain that their army does not consist of more than three thousand men, including all sorts." Sir Henry Percy, on hearing this, was greatly rejoiced, and cried out, "To horse! to horse! for by the faith I owe my God, and to my lord and father, I will seek to recover my pennon, and to beat up their quarters this night."

   1839, Jean Froissart, chapter CXXVI, in Thomas Johnes, transl., Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and The adjoining Countries, page 367

   Pa Blanken tells me that the Japs beat up our camp a month ago and we have lost all our heavy gear and moved up into the hills - he does not know where. Hell! No casualties, however.[…]Our material losses were very serious. The Japs had found a rucksack containing all our money, our medicines, including all our vital quinine, a copy of our signals plan, and a number of maps.[…]It seems probable that the Japs spotted our camp from the air. They certainly knew its exact position and came straight to it.

   1948, Freddie Spencer Chapman, The Jungle Is Neutral, published 2003, pages 272–275

4. To cause, by some other means, injuries comparable to the result of being beaten up.

   He [= a paraglider pilot] flew into a hill and beat himself up pretty badly.

   2008 October 29, on Real Rescues (a British TV program)

5. reflexiveTo feel badly guilty and accuse (oneself) over something.

   Don’t beat yourself up over such a minor mistake.

6. To make (someone) feel badly guilty and accuse (them) over something.

   It's getting louder and louder Every time I think about you, about you I'll be better off without you, without you I wish my heart would stop, wish my heart would stop Beating me up (whoa, oh, whoa) Beating me up (whoa, oh, whoa) Beating me up

   2015 May 12, Rachel Platten, Dave Bassett, Brian West, “Beating Me Up”, in Fight Song, performed by Rachel Platten

7. WW2 air pilots' usagegovernmentTo repeatedly bomb a military target or targets.
8. To get something done (derived from the idea of beating for game).
9. intransitivenauticalTo sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
10. datedintransitiveTo disturb; to pay an untimely visit to.
11. datedintransitiveTo go diligently about in order to get helpers or participants in an enterprise.

    to beat up for recruits, or for volunteers

comparative more beat up · superlative most beat up · alternative beat-up

1. slangBattered by time and usage; beaten up.

   Synonyms: beat, beaten up, dilapidated

plural beat ups · alternative beat-up

1. A person who, or thing that, has been beaten up.

   Well, two beat ups (the bullied kids) would split that cash fifty-fifty.

   2009 August 10, Thomas Cody Mullenaux, Numbskull, page 257

2. An act of beating up.
   1. UKslanggovernmentA raid.

      These hit-and-run LRDG attacks — “beat-ups,” the patrols were beginning to call them — continued, and added to the enemy's mounting difficulties.

      1987, John W. Gordon, The Other Desert War: British Special Forces in North Africa, 1940-1943, page 86

      Synonyms: hazing

   2. A beating; a hazing.

      Frequently on guest nights beat ups were held by the Third Term, and cadets of the First Term (and, sometimes, the Second Term) were singled out individually.

      2010, John Golley, Jet, page 14

      1 more example

      We gave him wedgies and did mock beat-ups. We never hurt him or intended to hurt him, but he went along with our tough guy sort of image, and took it tongue in cheek and got it.

      2008, Josh Frank, Charlie Buckholtz, In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre, page 243

      Synonyms: hazing

3. AustraliaNew ZealandUKAn artificially or disingenuously manufactured alarm or outcry, especially one agitated by or through the media.

   2009, Newstalk ZB, Hydro project claims "a beat up" - Brownlee, Newstalk ZB.

   3 more examples

   To the people of CQ^([Central Queensland]) the Internet is nothing more than the subject of media beat ups about pornography and bomb making.

   1995 September, David Jones, “1000 Users on a 486”, in AUUG ′95 & Asia-Pacific World Wide Web ′95 Conference & Exhibition: Conference Proceedings, page 106

   Media beat-ups and xenophobia are nothing new to the Vietnamese people.

   2007, Pauline Nguyen, Luke Nguyen, Mark Jensen, Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart, page 189

   These debates can be difficult to navigate and are all too easily reduced to simplistic reflections of individual taste and vulnerable to journalistic beat-ups.

   2009, Ken Gelder, Paul Salzman, After The Celebration: Australian Fiction 1989-2007, page 95

4. businessA tree planted later than others in a plantation.

   The data include measurements from both the original tree plantings and subsequent beat-ups.

   2003, K. J. Foot, M. Hislop, S. McNeilly, “The effect of green composted waste on tree establishment on landfill”, in Heather M. Moore, Howard R. Fox, Scott Elliott, editors, Land Reclamation: Extending The Boundaries: Proceedings Of The 7th International Conference, Runcorn, UK 13-16 May 2003, page 216