beating

The word “beating” means the act of repeatedly striking someone or something. In plain terms, a physical thrashing, a heavy loss, or the pulse of a heart.

“Beating” is pronounced BEE-tihng (/ˈbiːtɪŋ/ in IPA).

Here is “beating” used in a sentence: “The boxer took a beating in the final round.”

Words with a similar meaning to “beating” include ass beating, ass kicking, battering, beatdown, boom-boom and clobbering.

“Beating” is a noun.

“Beating” is a fairly common word in modern English.

“Beating” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: the act of repeatedly striking someone or something.

Literally it means being repeatedly struck, but the phrase is often figurative. To take a beating can mean suffering a heavy defeat, loss, or damage: a team can take a beating in a match, or your savings can take a beating in a downturn. The idea is absorbing hard, repeated blows.

A hit is a single blow or strike. A beating is a sustained series of blows, repeated striking rather than one impact. So one punch is a hit, but many blows delivered over a period of time, especially to hurt or overpower someone, add up to a beating.

No. While it often describes a physical assault, 'beating' also appears in harmless contexts. The beating of a heart is its steady pulsing; the beating of wings is their repeated flapping; beating eggs means whisking them briskly. In each case the shared idea is a repeated, rhythmic striking or motion.