Most commonly, to beat means ‘to strike something or someone repeatedly,’ ‘to smash against,’ and ‘to shape by hitting.’ However, beat also means ‘to stir ingredients vigorously,’ ‘to keep time by strokes,’ ‘to defeat something or someone,’ and, informally, ‘to be better than something or someone.’ Informally, it means ‘to confuse’ and ‘to avoid blame.’ As a noun, a beat is a stroke or blow and the sound it makes, the major rhythm in a music piece and a throbbing or pulsing. As an adjective,…
To shake is ‘to move with short, quick movements or up and down when mixing’ and ‘to tremble,’ literally and figuratively, as with cold or excitement or fear. When we shake hands, we hold someone else’s hand in greeting and move it up and down. Shake, often used with off, also means ‘to get rid of something’ or ‘to cause something to become loose and fall’…