beat off
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beat off (third-person singular simple present beats off, present participle beating off, simple past beat off, past participle beaten off or beat off)
- (transitive, now often figurative) To drive something away with blows or military force.
- 1697, Carradoc Of Lhancarvan, The history of Wales, page 33:
- ...which Action did not so much grieve the English, as trouble and vex the Picts and Scots, who were incessantly gauled and frequently beat off by these Danish Troops.
- 1954 November 27, “Red Assault on Tiny Isle Beaten Off, Say Nationalists”, in The Daily Colonist[1], volume 96, number 294, Victoria, British Columbia, page 1, column 6:
- First reports were that the Reds, in five gunboats and swarms of junks, succeeded in landing on tiny Wuchiu in Formosa Strait, but were beaten off with many captured.
- 1968 September, Betty & Me, volume 16, Archie Comics, front cover:
- (Betty) Did you have any trouble rescuing me?
(Archie) I sure did, Betty! I had to beat off three other guys!
- 2021 September 22, “National Rail Awards 2021: London Liverpool Street - Network Rail”, in RAIL, number 940, page 47:
- London Liverpool Street beat off stiff competition to be highly commended in this category, despite having had no major redevelopment for three decades.
- (intransitive, idiomatic, vulgar, colloquial, chiefly US, Canada) To masturbate, usually a man of himself; to manually stimulate one's own penis.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:masturbate
- 2003, David Burke, The Slangman guide to dirty English: dangerous expressions Americans use, page 13:
- Example 1: "I don't need a girlfriend. I just need some swimsuit catalogs, so I can beat off six or seven times a day."
- (intransitive, idiomatic, vulgar, colloquial) To waste time.
- I beat off at work all day; I didn't get anything done.