What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Beat vs Touch - What's the difference?

beat | touch |

As verbs the difference between beat and touch

is that beat is while touch is primarily physical senses.

As a noun touch is

an act of touching, especially with the hand or finger.

beat

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) beten, from (etyl) ). Compare (etyl) batre, (etyl) battre.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A stroke; a blow.
  • * Dryden
  • He, with a careless beat , / Struck out the mute creation at a heat.
  • A pulsation or throb.
  • a beat''' of the heart; the '''beat of the pulse
  • A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.
  • A rhythm.
  • (music) A transient grace note, struck immediately before the one it is intended to ornament.
  • The interference between two tones of almost equal frequency
  • A short pause in a play, screenplay, or teleplay, for dramatic or comedic effect.
  • The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.
  • to walk the beat
  • *
  • (by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially
  • # In journalism, the primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).
  • (dated) A place of habitual or frequent resort.
  • (archaic) A low cheat or swindler.
  • ''a dead beat
  • The instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music.
  • Derived terms
    * afterbeat * backbeat, back beat * beat the meat * D-beat * deadbeat * downbeat * drumbeat * forebeat * heartbeat * inbeat * misbeat * offbeat * onbeat * outbeat * underbeat * upbeat * walk the beat
    See also
    * (piece of hip-hop music) track

    Verb

  • To hit; to knock; to pound; to strike.
  • As soon as she heard that Wiktionary was shutting down, she went into a rage and beat the wall with her fists until her knuckles bled.
  • * {{quote-news, date = 21 August 2012
  • , first = Ed , last = Pilkington , title = Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die? , newspaper = The Guardian , url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/death-penalty-trial-reggie-clemons?newsfeed=true , page = , passage = In this account of events, the cards were stacked against Clemons from the beginning. His appeal lawyers have argued that he was physically beaten into making a confession, the jury was wrongfully selected and misdirected, and his conviction largely achieved on individual testimony with no supporting forensic evidence presented.}}
  • To strike or pound repeatedly, usually in some sort of rhythm.
  • He danced hypnotically while she beat the atabaque.
  • To strike repeatedly; to inflict repeated blows; to knock vigorously or loudly.
  • * Bible, Judges xix. 22
  • The men of the city beat at the door.
  • * Dryden
  • Rolling tempests vainly beat below.
  • * Longfellow
  • They [winds] beat at the crazy casement.
  • * Bible, Jonath iv. 8
  • The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon ministers.
  • To move with pulsation or throbbing.
  • * Byron
  • A thousand hearts beat happily.
  • To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do better than, outdo, or excel (someone) in a particular, competitive event.
  • Jan had little trouble beating John in tennis. He lost five games in a row.
    No matter how quickly Joe finished his test, Roger always beat him.
    I just can't seem to beat the last level of this video game.
  • (nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
  • To strike (water, foliage etc.) in order to drive out game; to travel through (a forest etc.) for hunting.
  • * 1955 , (Robin Jenkins), The Cone-Gatherers , Canongate 2012, p. 81:
  • The part of the wood to be beaten for deer sloped all the way from the roadside to the loch.
  • To mix food in a rapid fashion. Compare whip.
  • Beat the eggs and whip the cream.
  • (transitive, UK, In haggling for a price) of a buyer, to persuade the seller to reduce a price
  • He wanted $50 for it, but I managed to beat him down to $35.
  • (nonstandard)
  • * 1825? , "Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder", in The Newgate Calendar: comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters , page 231:
  • Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat : that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall
  • To indicate by beating or drumming.
  • to beat''' a retreat''; ''to '''beat to quarters
  • To tread, as a path.
  • * Blackmore
  • pass awful gulfs, and beat my painful way
  • To exercise severely; to perplex; to trouble.
  • * John Locke
  • Why should any one beat his head about the Latin grammar who does not intend to be a critic?
  • To be in agitation or doubt.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to still my beating mind
  • To make a sound when struck.
  • The drums beat .
  • (military) To make a succession of strokes on a drum.
  • The drummers beat to call soldiers to their quarters.
  • To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison.
  • Derived terms
    * beat a retreat * beat down * beat off * beater * beat about the bush * beat senseless * beat somebody to the punch * beat some sense into * beat the clock * beat the pants off * beat to quarters * beat up * beat to a pulp * bebeat * forbeat * inbeat * misbeat * overbeat * tobeat * underbeat * wife-beater

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (US slang) exhausted
  • After the long day, she was feeling completely beat .
  • dilapidated, beat up
  • Dude, you drive a beat car like that and you ain’t gonna get no honeys.
  • (gay slang) fabulous
  • Her makeup was beat!
  • (slang) boring
  • (slang, of a person) ugly
  • Synonyms
    * See also

    Etymology 2

    From (beatnik)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A beatnik.
  • Derived terms
    * beat generation

    References

    * DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.

    touch

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • Primarily physical senses.
  • # (label) To make physical contact with; to bring the hand, finger or other part of the body into contact with.
  • # (label) To come into (involuntary) contact with; to meet or intersect.
  • # (label) To come into physical contact, or to be in physical contact.
  • # (label) To make physical contact with a thing.
  • # (label) To physically disturb; to interfere with, molest, or attempt to harm through contact.
  • #* (Bible), (w) xxvi. 28, 29
  • Let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee.
  • # (label) To physically affect in specific ways implied by context.
  • # (label) To consume, or otherwise use.
  • #*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=But Richmond
  • # (label) Of a ship or its passengers: to land, to make a short stop (at).
  • #* 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby-Dick) :
  • Now a certain grand merchant ship once touched at Rokovoko, and its commander — from all accounts, a very stately punctilious gentleman, at least for a sea captain — this commander was invited to the wedding feast of Queequeg's sister, a pretty young princess just turned of ten.
  • #
  • #* 1971 , , Religion and the Decline of Magic , Folio Society (2012), page 189:
  • But in fact the English kings of the seventeenth century usually began to touch form the day of their accession, without waiting for any such consecration.
  • #
  • # To fasten; to take effect; to make impression.
  • #* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • Strong waters pierce metals, and will touch' upon gold, that will not ' touch upon silver.
  • # (label) To bring (a sail) so close to the wind that its weather leech shakes.
  • # To be brought, as a sail, so close to the wind that its weather leech shakes.
  • # (label) To keep the ship as near (the wind) as possible.
  • Primarily non-physical senses.
  • # (label) To imbue or endow with a specific quality.
  • #
  • #*, I.2.4.vii:
  • Next to sorrow still I may annex such accidents as procure fear; for besides those terrors which I have before touched ,which much trouble many of us.
  • # (label) To deal with in speech or writing; briefly to speak or write (on'' or ''upon something).
  • #* 1886 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde)
  • "Well, but since we have touched upon this business, and for the last time I hope," continued the doctor, "there is one point I should like you to understand."
  • # (label) To concern, to have to do with.
  • #* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) V:
  • Men of Israhell take hede to youreselves what ye entende to do as touchinge these men.
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.}}
  • #* 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Penance’, The Toys of Peace , Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 423:
  • And now it seemed he was engaged in something which touched them closely, but must be hidden from their knowledge.
  • # (label) To affect emotionally; to bring about tender or painful feelings in.
  • #
  • #
  • # (label) To obtain money from, usually by borrowing (from a friend).
  • #
  • # (label) To be on the level of; to approach in excellence or quality.
  • #* 1928 , , "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers", in (Lord Peter Views the Body) ,
  • There was his mistress, Maria Morano. I don't think I've ever seen anything to touch her, and when you work for the screen [as I do] you're apt to have a pretty exacting standard of female beauty.
  • #* 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
  • On Sunday afternoon it was as dark as night, with barely room for two riders abreast on a gradient that touches 20%.
  • # To mark (a file or document) as having been modified.
  • To try; to prove, as with a touchstone.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I mean to touch your love indeed.
  • To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush.
  • * (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • The lines, though touched but faintly, are drawn right.
  • (label) To infect; to affect slightly.
  • (Francis Bacon)
  • To strike; to manipulate; to play on.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • [They] touched their golden harps.
  • To perform, as a tune; to play.
  • * Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
  • A person in the royal retinue touched a light and lively air on the flageolet.
  • To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • No decree of mine,[to] touch with lightest moment of impulse his free will.

    Derived terms

    * touch a nerve * touch base * touch bottom * touch down * touch off * touch on * touch the hem of someone's garment * touch up * touch wood

    Noun

    (es)
  • An act of touching, especially with the hand or finger.
  • Suddenly, in the crowd, I felt a touch at my shoulder.
  • The faculty or sense of perception by physical contact.
  • With the lights out, she had to rely on touch to find her desk.
  • The style or technique with which one plays a musical instrument.
  • He performed one of Ravel's piano concertos with a wonderfully light and playful touch .
  • A distinguishing feature or characteristic.
  • Clever touches like this are what make her such a brilliant writer.
  • A little bit; a small amount.
  • Move it left just a touch and it will be perfect.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Madam, I have a touch of your condition.
  • The part of a sports field beyond the touchlines or goal-lines.
  • He got the ball, and kicked it straight out into touch .
  • A relationship of close communication or understanding.
  • He promised to keep in touch while he was away.
  • The ability to perform a task well; aptitude.
  • I used to be a great chess player but I've lost my touch .
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 29 , author=Jon Smith , title=Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Rovers' hopes of pulling off one of the great European shocks of all time lasted just 10 minutes before Spurs finally found their scoring touch .}}
  • Act or power of exciting emotion.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Not alone / The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches , / Do strongly speak to us.
  • An emotion or affection.
  • * Hooker
  • a true, natural, and a sensible touch of mercy
  • Personal reference or application.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Speech of touch toward others should be sparingly used.
  • A single stroke on a drawing or a picture.
  • * Dryden
  • Never give the least touch with your pencil till you have well examined your design.
  • A brief essay.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • Print my preface in such form as, in the booksellers' phrase, will make a sixpenny touch .
  • A touchstone; hence, stone of the sort used for touchstone.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Now do I play the touch .
  • * Fuller
  • a neat new monument of touch and alabaster
  • Examination or trial by some decisive standard; test; proof; tried quality.
  • * Carew
  • equity, the true touch of all laws
  • * Shakespeare
  • friends of noble touch
  • The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers.
  • a heavy touch''', or a light '''touch
  • The broadest part of a plank worked top and but, or of one worked anchor-stock fashion (that is, tapered from the middle to both ends); also, the angles of the stern timbers at the counters.
  • The children's game of tag.
  • Derived terms

    * common touch * in touch * light touch * lose one's touch * lose touch * out of touch * soft touch * touch football * touch-kick * touchless * touch oneself * touch-paper * touch piece * touch-type

    Statistics

    *