beat upverb

• 1

  To give a severe beating to; to assault violently with repeated blows.

  • I got beaten up by thugs on my way home.
  • You don't beat people up, so that you can live in a society where nobody would beat you up.
• 2

  To wake up earlier than.

  • I wanted to beat you up this morning and make breakfast for you for once.
• 3

  obsoleteTo attack suddenly; to alarm.

  • At breach of wall, or hedge surprise, / She shared i' th' hazard, and the prize: / At beating quarters up, or forage, / Behaved herself with matchless courage
  • On this occasion, the diligent prior o St. Andrews assembled 600 horse, with which he assailed the French, beat up their quarters, intercepted their provisions, and cut off their straggling parties.
• 4

  To cause, by some other means, injuries comparable to the result of being beaten up.

  • He [= a paraglider pilot] flew into a hill and beat himself up pretty badly.
• 5

  To feel badly guilty and accuse (oneself) over something. (Usually followed by over or about.)

  • Don’t beat yourself up over such a minor mistake.
• 6

  To make (someone) feel badly guilty and accuse (them) over something.

  • It's getting louder and louder Every time I think about you, about you I'll be better off without you, without you I wish my heart would stop, wish my heart would stop Beating me up (whoa, oh, whoa) Beating me up (whoa, oh, whoa) Beating me up
• 7

  governmentmilitarypoliticsTo repeatedly bomb a military target or targets.

• 8

  To get something done (derived from the idea of beating for game).

beat upadj

• 1

  slangBattered by time and usage; beaten up.

beat upnoun

• 1

  A person who, or thing that, has been beaten up.

  • Well, two beat ups (the bullied kids) would split that cash fifty-fifty.
• 2

  slanggovernmentmilitarypoliticsAn act of beating up:

  • These hit-and-run LRDG attacks — “beat-ups,” the patrols were beginning to call them — continued, and added to the enemy's mounting difficulties.
• 3

  An act of beating up:

  • We gave him wedgies and did mock beat-ups. We never hurt him or intended to hurt him, but he went along with our tough guy sort of image, and took it tongue in cheek and got it.
  • Frequently on guest nights beat ups were held by the Third Term, and cadets of the First Term (and, sometimes, the Second Term) were singled out individually.
• 4

  An artificially or disingenuously manufactured alarm or outcry, especially one agitated by or through the media.

  • To the people of CQ^([Central Queensland]) the Internet is nothing more than the subject of media beat ups about pornography and bomb making.
  • Media beat-ups and xenophobia are nothing new to the Vietnamese people.
• 5

  businessforestryA tree planted later than others in a plantation.

  • The data include measurements from both the original tree plantings and subsequent beat-ups.