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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

beat someone's time en · VERB

Meanings

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see beat, time.
  2. (informal, usually, with with) To make advances toward someone's romantic partner.
    • I was to dance with Kidder the livelong night / But got my time beat by Charley Wright. / If I ever have to have a fight / I hope it will be with Charley Wright; / For he was the ruin of my soul / When he beat my time with Kidder Cole / (missing stanzas including one about Kidder going to South Carolina) / But she came back the following spring / And oh, how I made my banjo ring; / It helped me get my spirit right, / To beat the time of Charley Wright. 1899, Felix E. Alley, "Ballad of Kidder Cole", in Roaming the Mountains with John A. Parris, John Parris, 1955
    • He was trying to beat my time with my girl.
    • There's a hat-check girl at that cafe — a droopy, fat little blonde — who's trying to beat my time with him. And he's falling for it, the poor baby! 1949, Hearst's International Combined with Cosmopolitan, volume 126:
    • He said if Travis don't hurry up he's goin' to beat his time with you. We all got bets laid as to which one will get you to go on a real date first. 2016, Carolyn Brown, Nicole Helm, Hell, Yeah / Outlaw Cowboy:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
beat someone's time Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part colloquial lexicographic
beat someone's time Tense=Past lexicographic
beaten someone's time Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
beating someone's time Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
beats someone's time Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic