beat up

== English == === Alternative forms === beat-up (adjective, noun) === Pronunciation === === Verb === beat up (third-person singular simple present beats up, present participle beating up, simple past beat up, past participle beaten up or (US colloquial) beat up) (transitive) To give a severe beating to; to assault violently with repeated blows. (transitive) To wake up earlier than. (obsolete) To attack suddenly; to alarm. 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: 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. To cause, by some other means, injuries comparable to the result of being beaten up. 2008 October 29, on Real Rescues (a British TV program): He [= a paraglider pilot] flew into a hill and beat himself up pretty badly. (reflexive) To feel badly guilty and accuse (oneself) over something. (Usually followed by over or about.) To make (someone) feel badly guilty and accuse (them) over something. (military, WW2 air pilots' usage) To repeatedly bomb a military target or targets. To get something done (derived from the idea of beating for game). (intransitive, nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind. (intransitive, dated) To disturb; to pay an untimely visit to. (intransitive, dated) To go diligently about in order to get helpers or participants in an enterprise. ==== Synonyms ==== (give a severe beating to): do over, rough up, work over process ==== Derived terms ==== beat 'em up beat-up ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== beat to a pulp === Adjective === beat up (comparative more beat up, superlative most beat up) (slang) Battered by time and usage; beaten up. ==== Usage notes ==== Not to be confused with upbeat. ==== Synonyms ==== beat, beaten up dilapidated === Noun === beat up (plural beat ups) A person who, or thing that, has been beaten up. An act of beating up: (UK, military slang) A raid. A beating; a hazing. (UK, Australia, New Zealand) An 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. (forestry) A tree planted later than others in a plantation. ==== Synonyms ==== (act of beating up): hazing === Anagrams === up-beat, upbeat