Anything that beats the thing spoken of.
1847. You don’t tell me so! Did I ever hear the beat o’ that!—‘The Great Kalamazoo Hunt,’ p. 100 (Phila.).
1878. That Bill is saassy enough to physic a hornbug. I never see the beat of him!—H. B. Stowe, ‘Poganuc People,’ chap. x.
1908. Abram he jest laughed, and says, ‘Well, Jane, I never saw your beat.’—Eliza C. Hall, ‘Aunt Jane of Kentucky,’ p. 27.
