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BEAT (a word See also: blow or stroke; from the many applications of the verb " to beat " come various meanings of the substantive, in some of which the See also: primary sense has become obscure
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It is applied to tile throbbing of the See also: pulse or See also: heart, to the beating of a drum, either for retreat, or See also: charge, or to quarters; in See also: music to the alternating See also: sound produced by the striking together of two notes not exactly of the same See also: pitch (see SOUND), and also to the See also: movement of the baton by which a conductor of an orchestra or See also: chorus indicates the See also: time, and to the divisions of a See also: bar
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As a nautical See also: term, a " beat " is the zigzag course taken by a See also: ship in sailing against the See also: wind
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The application of the word to a policeman's or sentry's round comes either from beating a covert for See also: game and hence the term means an exhaustive See also: search of a See also: district, or from the repeated strokes of the See also: foot in constantly walking up and down
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In this sense the word is used in See also: America, particularly in See also: Alabama and See also: Mississippi, of a voting See also: precinct
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